INSECTS A GREAT ANNOYANCE. 
2 5 J 
The success of my raft was triumphantly established, 
and without it we should not have obtained a single 
specimen, as, although it was evident, from their 
innumerable tracks, that the hippos were in the habit 
of coming out at night to feed in the bush, there was 
no moon while we were here, and on several occasions, 
when we lay out to intercept them at early dawn, we 
found they always returned to the lake before daylight. 
Once, when I had gone out about 2.30 a.m., after a 
very dreary wait through the night, the silence only 
being broken by the occasional growl of a lion and 
the mournful moan of hyaenas, I saw, about a mile off, 
a big black mass approaching the lake from the bush. 
“ Hippo at last,” said I to myself, and ran as hard as I 
could to intercept the beast, but only to find, on nearer 
approach, that it was a large rhino cow followed by 
a calf. 
The insects were an everlasting pest at this camp— 
mosquitoes, midges, beetles, spiders, and ants of all 
sorts, until it really seemed that every hour produced a 
fresh species. One ant in particular was quite terrible, 
the siafu, which is of a dark red colour, and has a broad 
flat head terminating in a crescent - shaped forceps 
which it buries in the flesh of the unfortunate victim, 
and there literally stands upon its head. We were 
frequently roused in the middle of the night by sudden 
attacks, in force, of these pests, and the only way of 
getting rid of them was to burn the ground for some 
distance all round. 
W'hile in pursuit of the hippos, C 
told me that 
