To Lake Albert Edward 
185 
move about and cook their provisions without any assistance, but 
after ten days such a change for the worse set in that they simply 
sat in their huts absolutely inert and helpless, with staring eyes 
and limp hands. As we were unable to aid them, they grew 
rapidly worse, and in fourteen days they succumbed to the 
disease. 
This terrible evil, the spread of which has only been checked 
in a limited degree by the use of atoxyl, claims a vast number of 
human victims annually in the Congo State. The Government 
endeavours to suppress the malady with all the means at its 
command. The praiseworthy intentions of the State are, how¬ 
ever, terribly handicapped by the apathy of the natives, who will 
not place themselves in the hands of the white man. Although 
later on we saw some excellently organised infirmaries in the 
Congo territory, they are only as a drop in the ocean, and the 
number of their inmates only forms a fraction of the sick popula¬ 
tion wasting to death far from human help in the dark depths 
and damp decay of the virgin forest. 
The sport in the valley of the Semliki can hardly be com¬ 
pared to that of the Rutschuru valley, yet water-buck, moor- 
antelope, and reed-buck may often be seen. The abundance of 
elephants, on the other hand, exceeded all expectations. I cannot 
remember a day on which I did not sight one. At night time we 
could often hear them tramping round in the vicinity of the camp 
and the peculiar noise they make in browsing. In the morning 
we frequently discovered fresh traces left by them during the 
night in immediate proximity to the camp. Yet we did not even 
take the trouble to follow them up, but simply made for the 
clearer places in the acacia forest on the open bank, where they 
used to congregate rather later in the morning. Occasionally we 
met troops of four to eight, and sometimes herds of forty to fifty. 
The Congo State endeavours as far as is possible to protect 
its enormous stock of living ivory, its main export. To this end 
it has created great reserves, in which the capture and killing of 
the animals is prohibited. On account of the difficulty of con¬ 
trol, particularly in the vast forest districts, such prohibition is 
Y 
