rock might have detached itself from a high mountain,
and, in falling to the valley, it might have bounded
from a projection on the mountain’s side, and thus
have caused a double report.
June 13.—I shot ten ducks and geese before breakfast,
including one of the large black and white geese
with the crimson head and neck. On my return to
camp I weighed this—exactly eleven pounds; this
goose has on either pinion-joint a sharp, horny spur, an
inch in length.
During my morning stroll I met hundreds of natives
running excitedly with shields and spears, towards
Adda’s village: they were going to steal the cattle
from a village about four miles distant; thus there will
be a fight in the course of the day.. -The Latooka
stream is now full, and has the appearance of a permanent
river carrying a considerable body of water to
the Sobat.
T met with two thieves while duck-shooting this
morning—the one an eagle, and the other a native.
The beautiful white-throated fish-eagle may generally
be seen perched upon a bough overhanging the stream,
ready for any prey that may offer. This morning I
shot two ducks right and left as they flew down the
course of the river—one fell dead in the water, but the
other, badly hit, fluttered along the surface for some
distance, and was immediately chased and seized by a
fish-eagle which, quite reckless of the gun, had been,
watching the sport from a high tree, and evinced a
desire to share the results. My men, not to be done
out of their breakfast, gave chase, shouting and yelling
to frighten the eagle, and one of them having a gun
loaded with buckshot, fired, and the whirr-r of the
charge induced the eagle to drop the duck, which was
triumphantly seized by the man.
The other thief was a native. I fired a long shot
at a drake; the bird flew a considerable distance and
towered, falling about a quarter of a mile distant. A
Latooka was hoeing close to where it fell, and we distinctly
saw him pick up the bird and run to a bush,
in which he hid i t ; upon our arrival he continued
his work as though nothing had happened, and denied
all knowledge of i t : he was accordingly led by the
ear to the bush, where we found the duck carefully
secreted.
June 14.—The natives lost one man killed in the
fight yesterday, therefore the night was passed in
singing and dancing.
The country is drying u p ; although the stream is
full there is no rain in Latooka, the water in the river
being the eastern drainage of the Obbo mountains,
where it.rains daily.