Lake Kiwu and its Islands 
99 
should have succeeded in taking home this coveted prize if I had 
not been seduced by a fox-goose waddling along, which I imme¬ 
diately made mine for the sake of our larder. The shot started 
up a bush-buck which had, concealed from me, been browsing 
behind a hill, but which, with a few bounds, at once disappeared 
into the forest. It escaped me a second time in a similarly annoy¬ 
ing manner. I had stationed myself one afternoon at a spot 
on the edge of the forest, which, from the many tracks of game, 
promised me some likelihood of success. Half-hour after half- 
hour fled by, but no bush-buck was to be seen. The sun had 
long sunk below the distant Congo mountains, and there was no 
longer light enough to shoot by, when across from the camp there 
approached the flickering glimmer from the lantern of the Askari 
who had been ordered to fetch me. I stood up dejectedly and 
went to meet him. Then there came a short shrill cry of terror, 
and a yellow shadow, twenty paces away, fled back into the 
forest. My chagrin can be imagined, for we had to proceed 
farther the following day, and all hope of getting the important 
zoological specimen was gone. But I had reckoned without my 
trusty comrade Mildbraed. By no means a born hunter, he had, 
up to the present, used the skill in shooting which he had acquired 
in the Prussian military service almost exclusively for botanical 
purposes by bringing down the blossom-bearing branches of the 
virginal forest. As regards living animals, his bullets had so 
far only been utilised for despatching certain billy-goats of our 
flocks destined for slaughter, and here and there a crane which 
had stood in the way of his caravan. Therefore, my amazement 
was not small when I understood the “ bana maua^^ or “ Flower- 
master,” had shot some game. Whilst making an excursion to 
the southern half of the island, Mildbraed had suddenly noticed 
something red moving slowly in the high steppe grass. Raising 
his gun hastily, he let drive, and the famous bush-buck of Wau 
lay at his feet—a full-grown female of the species {Tragela'phus 
roualeyni). It appeared smaller to us than the specimens collected 
elsewhere. In what way it differs—if differ it does—from the 
animal which frequents the banks of the lake, cannot be deter- 
