the grass is very thick and about eight feet high.  After a time my gun weighs heavy so I give it to a bearer and a moment after two fine pheasants rise a few yards away.  All around is evidence of game.  Great tracts through the grass where the stately elephant has passed to drink at the river, spoor of buffalo and antelope at every water course and yet not a sign of life now for the sun is high up and a hundred bearers are yelling and singing close behind.  After walking for about two hours we reach forest and enter its welcome shade.  A small stream prattles cheerfully along under the trees and as the path several times passes through it we keep our feet comfortably cool.  About 2 p.m. we reach a village beautifully situated on a slope in the midst of dense forest.  This is protected on all sides by a strong stockade twelve feet high for leopards abound and when game is difficult to find do not hesitate to enter villages and carry off people.  Here we halt for lunch and then on again through the forest full of cuckoo pheasants.  These are not much more difficult to shoot than hand reared birds at home although they fly higher to clear the tall trees.  They do not, however, appear to travel very quickly but this may be a delusion as it is difficult to judge distance in Africa.  No other game birds come within range.  Late in the afternoon we reach Bogosi, a large clean and well arranged village.  The Chief is a pleasant fellow perfectly willing to sell us food for our party; and monkeys, tortoises or anything else we may desire for ourselves.  Here we change all our paddlers the present ones going back to their villages.  As the tribe is at war with one higher up the river, Mr. Van Luttens thought it might be difficult to obtain paddlers here and so came himself.  With his aid, however, the difficulty vanished for he arranged with the Chief that the paddlers who took us to Djabir should not be called upon to do any more work for the State for nine months.  That is to say that the enforced forty hours a month would work out at six or seven days paddling in nine months and as each man was liberally paid in cloth no one could possibly say that he was used hardly.  Having bathed in the swiftly running river we dined in the enclosure which did duty as the Council Chamber and then thoroughly tired turned in early.

It was not until 9 a.m. in the morning that we could make a start for all the baggage had to be fitted into the canoes and the paddlers arranged in their places.  The first day with new crews is always a trouble but this is never repeated for the native has a good memory and every bale, bag, gun and even small articles like books are taken from the canoes each evening and put back in identically the same place in the morning.  This is remarkable when one thinks that some hundreds of separate articles have to be placed in one of seven or eight different canoes in one particular place.