c h a p . x x i . ] , . CHARACTER OF THEi EINEER. 5 2 9
the Dinder country was rich in game, but, at this
season, it was swarming .with Arabs, and .was so
much disturbed, that everything had left the. country,
and the elephants merely drank during the
night, and retreated to distant and impenetrable
jungles. At night we heard a lion roar, but this, instead
of being our constant nightingale, as upon the
Settite river, was now an uncommon sound. The
maneless lion is found on the banks of the. Dinder;
all that I saw, in the shape of game, in the neighbourhood
of that river and the Rahad, were a few
.hippopotami and crocodiles. The stream of the
Dinder is. obstructed with many snags and trunks
of fallen trees that would be serious obstacles to
xapid navigation: these are the large stems of the
soont {Acacia Arabica), that, growing close to the
-•edge, have fallen into the river when the banks have
•given way. I was astonished at the absence of elephants
in such favourable ground ; for some miles I
walked along the margin of the river without seeing
a track of any date. Throughout this country, these
.animals are so continually hunted, that they have
become exceedingly wary, and there can be little
-doubt that their numbers are much reduced. EveD
m the beautiful shooting country comprised between
-ihe river Gash and Gallabat, although we had excellent
sport, I had been disappointed in the number of
elephants, which I had expected to find in herds of
many hundreds, instead of forty or fifty, which was the
largest number that I had seen together. The habits
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