VOYAGE UP WHITE NILE 
57 
through intricate archipelagos of islands, some wooded, 
all heavily fringed with papyrus and giant sedges 15 or 
20 feet in height, together with other strange aquatic 
plants. Here, along with the papyrus, commences the 
mosquito-scourge. No longer, after sundown, can one 
enjoy the luxury of dining or smoking on the open deck. 
Nets must be rigged and knee-boots of supple pliant 
leather donned at dusk. 
Such narrow riverside cultivation as exists is now 
flanked by what looks like real “big-game veld”'—that is, 
plains of sere halfa-grass, waist-deep, interspersed with 
the open mimosa-forest and scrub, so typical of Africa. 
We, however, did no serious hunting at this point. The 
hunting-veld is only assumed—-and we assented to that 
assumption—to begin further south, by Jebelein (238 
miles); though the range of cob, gazelle, and other ante¬ 
lopes, such as tiang and waterbuck, extends as far north 
as scrub grows. 
Here we first meet with hippopotamus ; and crocodiles 
become numerous, lying wherever a mud-islet or foreshore 
affords convenient resting-place. Silently we sailed past 
many, fast asleep, within 50 yards, and I shot several. 
A -375 dum-dum bullet placed either full on shoulder or 
close behind the eye knocks them stiff. When shot in 
brain or vertebrae of neck (either, of course, causing 
instant death), such is the terrific muscular power of 
these great reptiles that, in a final convulsion, they will 
throw themselves bolt upright, with jaws agape and claws 
wide outspread—or even turn a back-somersault—ere 
totally collapsing. In their slime-clad armour crocs are 
not always easy to see on a slimy bed. When disturbed 
■—it surprised me to observe this—a crocodile first raises 
itself to the full height of its short legs, looks around, and 
then ivalks —like a dog—rather than waddles to the water. 
At a pinch, however, their activity and speed in gaining 
that refuge is amazing. The biggest actually measured 
