THE WATERBUCK 
133 
anchored for many days, investigating the life-history 
and specific values of certain tiny aquatic warblers. A 
few hundred yards inland grew a straggled clump of trees, 
islanded amidst deep swamp and known to us as “ Lion- 
wood,” since each evening a lion treated us to an African 
oratorio in B Major. Yet each dawn and dusk a single 
waterbuck bull emerged from its recesses. That small 
wood, in fact, was daily occupied by Lynes, a lion, and a 
waterbuck ; yet neither sought the other’s undoing. 
The last-named of the trio was a frequent source of 
interest to me. His pasturage was a mere strip of a few 
acres, and his only access to sweet water lay exactly 
opposite to our ship; he would not drink of the mephitic 
swamp, nor trust himself on the bog. Still less dare he 
approach Candace. Night after night he kept coming 
nearer, but fear for long carried the day and he never 
got his “sun-downer.” At length thirst and confidence 
prevailed. On the fifth evening he came boldly down 
and drank within 100 yards of the ship. 
These pestilent morasses, it goes without saying, 
abound with mosquitoes in millions and with every class 
of flying terror. The wild beasts suffer therefrom as we 
do, and in similarly varying degree. Some prove immune, 
others not. Thus against me personally the mosquito 
and the flea prevail not. Were a “ flea-biscite ” available, 
I fancy those insects would exclude me from Africa 
(though the bloodthirsty seroot is my daily, hourly 
dread). Of the wild beasts, the waterbuck, while grazing 
round the swamps at dusk is, of all animals, the 
most terribly tormented. One sees his sufferings and 
sympathises. Perpetually he must cease grazing to 
shake his head, to scratch his neck with hind hoof, or 
hind quarters with horn. Never does he enjoy a whole 
minute’s peace, nor half one, unmolested. Yet the white¬ 
eared cob and reedbuck, though often in sight at the 
same moment, are not plagued in anything like the same 
degree. True, the latter two hold the drier, firmer ground 
