entrance of this river, but the
anchorage is quite safe in all weathers. Getting over the bar of the
river is a matter at times of considerable difficulty, but once inside
the bar you are in the paradise of shooting. A small steam launch is
necessary to stem the strong current, and to tow another boat up with
tents, provisions, &c. It is true that in my time we had no steam
launches, and I shall not forget the hard work we had to take two boats
sufficiently far up the river to get well into the shooting grounds, and
even after two days' struggling we did not arrive so far as I should
have wished (we, in fact, only got four miles up the stream). Still we
had some rare sport, the more especially with pigs and francolin. The
morning after we had pitched our tents some wandering Arabs came to us
and offered to beat the woods, which they declared to be full of wild
boar. They told us that the habit of these animals was, on being driven,
to take to the river and swim to the other side; so we placed our guns
along the banks and told the boat to guard the river from pigs swimming
across, and try to stop them as best they could. The guns available for
the shore work consisted of myself and two friends and my coxswain, who
was armed with a ship's rifle. The Arabs went into the bush on
horseback; the beat had hardly begun when a lot of pigs were started,
all making for the river; three of these were knocked over. As they
approached several others dashed into the river, and a most amusing hunt
was made after them by the sailors. Not being armed with rifles, their
weapons of offence against piggy were revolvers, ropes, and the
stretchers of the boats.

There was, as may be supposed, great excitement among the men when the
pigs took to the water; they at once went at them, firing revolvers,
pulling after them as they swam, using language not allowed in these
refined days in the navy; and, before we got to the scene of action
they had lassoed as it were two fine pigs, and tied them to trees on the
river-side, and when we arrived were firing their revolvers at them
apparently with very little effect; however, we soon gave the animals
the _coup de grace_. Thus we killed five pigs in our first drive. We
took the liver, alias fry, out of the pigs to eat (it is most
excellent), cut off the heads of the tuskers, and hung the remaining
parts on a tree to wait our return, changing our camp further up the
river the same night. The next morning