170 
In the Heart of Africa 
The camp was encircled with a stockade to form a protection 
against lions, which were fairly prevalent, and it was therefore 
very cramped. Our stay was in consequence hot and anything 
but agreeable. The fence had proved itself necessary, how¬ 
ever, as lions had previously broken in and destroyed human 
life. The audacious marauders had not been daunted by a 
leap of more than three metres over the high hedge. Only a 
month before I arrived, a sentinel on duty at the exact spot 
where my tent stood was seized by one of them. He only owed 
his life to the fact that the lion, frightened by the screams in 
the camp, abandoned his victim and, springing back over the 
fence, fled away. 
We came across fresh tracks which led close along by the 
fence, and we several times heard roaring. As we intended to 
shift our camp to the steppe as quickly as possible, turning off 
in an easterly direction, the abundance of lions in this region 
suited us very well. The whole Rutschuru plain from Maji ja 
moto to the southern end of Lake Albert Edward simply swarms 
with game. Wherever one looks the plain is covered with im¬ 
mense herds of antelopes. Yet, as in the whole of Central 
Africa, the number of species met with is fairly limited. The 
chief are the water-buck, moor-antelopes, reed-buck, duyker- 
buck and jimara (lyre-antelope). Buffalo may be seen daily 
in great herds in the bush, which concentrates into a forest-like 
growth towards the lake. We also often observed the ugly 
forms of dicotyles. They prefer the neighbourhood of swampy 
places and river courses, although they are also encountered in 
the middle of the wide plain. As the dicotyles are accounted 
a particular delicacy by the lion, their presence partly explains 
the considerable number of lions in the district. 
The Belgian officers, generally speaking, hunt very little, 
and, indeed, the only game shot is used for commissariat pur¬ 
poses, so that there does not appear to be any immediate danger 
of these shooting-grounds being depleted. The Rutschuru steppe 
is a bare, level track, broken by light acacia growths. It was 
covered with low grass reaching to the knee at the time of our 
