dly peeled off his clothes. He said his bed was full of great black
ants which had fixed on his skin and were biting him all over. Millions
of these pests indeed were on the camping ground but had as yet not
reached my tent. Hastily pulling on high boots and covering myself from
head to foot, I cautiously crept out of the tent and found the ground
black with ants. It was impossible to kill them by stamping about for
they were simply driven into the soft sand and wriggled out again the
moment the foot was withdrawn. We were evidently in the line of march of
a migrating host and were forced to beat a hasty retreat leaving the
insects in full possession.

There is no drinking water at Songo, so we had to boil and filter that
from the river. This proved very difficult, for even after allowing it
to settle and then carefully decanting it, there was so much mud left,
that the pores of the porcelain candles in the filters frequently became
blocked. We had therefore to be content with muddy water well boiled. As
we had a fair amount of baggage, we required sixty or seventy paddlers
and it was not easy to find so many. At length however, after searching
on both sides of the river, crews were collected for three large canoes
and we arranged to continue our journey on September 14th.

The canoes were lifted up the Songo rapids empty, while the baggage was
carried along the bank. It was then stowed in the boats and having
taken our places we made a start. The method of propulsion is very
interesting to watch. The canoes are sixty or seventy feet long and
three or four wide. In the centre is an awning to shade the white man
and in front by the bows, a space is left about ten feet long in which
three pole men work. These use their poles as in punting, except that
the ends are forked, so that they are enabled to push either against the
bottom of the river or rocks, or branches of trees on the bank, for the
canoe keeps close to the shore all the time in order to give the polemen
an opportunity and also to avoid the swifter current running in the
centre of the river. In the stern twenty or thirty paddlers sit on the
sides of the boat and work together, while on the extreme end two or
three stand up with long paddles to steer. The cook with his fire built
on a heap of clay in the bottom of the canoe, sits among the paddlers
and the sentries and baggage tuck themselves in somewhere, for it is
wonderful how many people and how much baggage