he pulled like a horse, and nearly cut through
the thick cotton cloth, making straight running for at least a hundred
yards without a halt. I now put so severe a strain upon him that my
strong bamboo bent nearly double, and the fish presently so far yielded
to the pressure that I could enforce his running in half circles instead
of straight away. I kept gaining line until I at length led him into
a shallow bay, and after a great fight Bacheet embraced him by falling
upon him and clutching the monster with hands and knees; he then tugged
to the shore a magnificent fish of upward of sixty pounds. For about
twenty minutes lie had fought against such a strain as I had never
before used upon a fish; but I had now adopted hooks of such a large
size and thickness that it was hardly possible for them to break, unless
snapped by a crocodile. My reel was so loosened from the rod, that had
the struggle lasted a few minutes longer I must have been vanquished.
This fish measured three feet eight inches to the root of the tail, and
two feet three inches in girth of shoulders; the head measured one foot
ten inches in circumference. It was of the same species as those I had
already caught.

Over a month was passed at our camp, Ehetilla, as we called it. The time
passed in hunting, fishing, and observing the country, but it was for
the most part uneventful. In the end of October we removed to a village
called Wat el Negur, nine miles south-east of Ehetilla, still on the
bank of the Atbara.

Our arrival was welcomed with enthusiasm. The Arabs here had extensive
plantations of sesame, dhurra, and cotton, and the nights were spent in
watching them, to scare away the elephants, which, with extreme cunning,
invaded the fields of dhurra at different points every night, and
retreated before morning to the thick, thorny jungles of the Settite.
The Arabs were without firearms, and the celebrated aggageers or
sword-hunters were useless, as the elephants appeared only at night, and
were far too cunning to give them a chance. I was importuned to drive
away the elephants, and one evening, about nine o'clock, I arrived at
the plantations with three men carrying spare guns. We had not been half
an hour in the dhurra fields before we met a couple of Arab watchers,
who informed us that a herd of elephants was already in the plantation;
we accordingly followed our guides. In about a quarter of an hour we
distinctly heard the cracking of the dhurra stems