We had to clear a space for our camp in the thick bush, which
really only wanted large trees to be called a regular forest.
Our progress had been so slow that I did not think we had
covered a greater distance than six miles in the five hours
since we had left Burkau. The country undoubtedly looked
most fertile and promising, the soil for the first part of the
journey being of a brown to reddish chocolate, and latterly
of a good grey loam.
Much to the disappointment of the guides the hyaenas never
returned, and but for the trumpeting of a distant elephant,
our first night in the bush passed quite quietly and without
incident of any kind.
The temperature this day was— 6 a.m., 72°-(rainy) ; 4 p.m.,
79°; 6p.m., 75°.'
CH A P T ER X X IV
SEARCH FOR THE FOREST
Into the Bush — Cutting our Wa y— Orchella-weed — Warkono — An
Elephant Haunt— Buramanza Hill— Makundu Ridge— A Useless
J Guide—An ever-receding Forest— Fever— A Shauri with the Guides—
Stalking a Leopard— Burkau again— Deceit of Head-man— Resolve to
fall back— The Wa-Galla Settlements on the Wiori River— A Declining
Race— Good-bye to Port Durnford— Shamku—Thirst— A Weary
Night March— Return to Kionga— Engage another Guide— My New '
Plans.
T he country through which I travelled on my second day s
march still continued very flat and swampy, water lying everywhere,"
often a foot deep.
j Tracks of elephants were very numerous, the ground in
places being ploughed up into a regular quagmire by their
pbnderous feet. The bush was so thick and dense that it
necessitated constant cutting to get through it. It was
literally a case of marching five minutes and then waiting
five minutes for a path to be cleared, four askaris, changed
every hour, being set to- cut a way ahead; our progress was
therefore slow in the extreme. Mimosas were frequent, and
some of the bush was large enough to deserve the name of
low forest, the trees averaging from 15 to 20 feet in height.
Orchella-weed was reported to be plentiful, and I passed some
dead and deciduous trees covered with i t ; it became still more
plentiful further on. About two hours after I had started we
came upon a cleared space on higher ground, called Warkono,
where elephant-hunters and orchella-weed gatherers are accustomed
to camp. From this point onwards our way continued
through the same description, of country— thick bush inter