To Lake Albert Edward 
177 
genuine African farewell concert of such power and grandeur 
that our regret at departure from a country that had so 
much to offer was greatly increased. Five lions howled and 
roared the whole night long outside our camp, so that sleep 
was out of the question, and we sat up on our couches listening. 
Then when the piercing cries of a trapped hyena, almost human 
in tone, rang out, there was such a scene that I rushed from 
the tent into the bright moonlight in order to make sure that no 
human life had been sacrificed. 
I could not deny myself the pleasure of one little excursion 
in the vicinity of the nocturnal concert. Following up three new 
trails we had our lions before us before an hour had passed. 
Whilst two of the creatures rapidly fled, one lioness ensconced 
herself in a ditch grown over with tall brushwood. Shouts and 
stones proving equally futile to induce the beast to leave her 
lurking-place, we had recourse to a well-tried expedient which 
never fails^—we fired the bush. Some commotion amongst the 
foliage followed. The shaking of the leaves and furious 
growling showed plainly how unwilling the brute was to leave 
her hiding-place. Not until the fire, which was burning badly 
in the damp atmosphere, had almost scorched her hide, did 
the lioness appear. She leapt out of the shrub, but, struck by 
my bullet, toppled over like a hare the next moment and lay 
still. Before she could rise again a final shot in the neck ter¬ 
minated her predatory career. 
Returning to the camp, I found Czeczatka and the Belgian 
non-commissioned officer Dewatt, who had come over from the 
Vitschumbi station at the southern end of Lake Albert Edward. 
Czeczatka had been commissioned to march direct to Vitschumbi 
with all superfluous loads, and to set out from there to find us. 
Dewatt brought fresh vegetables, and Czeczatka had a case of 
stores, which happily put an end for the time being to our most 
pressing needs. 
Gradually getting into lower altitudes, we reached the 
southern banks of Lake Albert Edward on the 28th of November. 
The nearer one reaches the lake, the shorter grows the grass and 
X 
