Five years in the Sudan . thoughwe could well have done with another, as my men had,like myself, become accustomed to good living, andresented being without their usual supply of tendermeat. I took a flying shot at it as it rose to boundover an ant-heap, and to my enormous surprise it fellto the shot. I was not a very good rifle-shot in thosedays; I was always uncertain to a fearful degree,and could never be sure of my day. There were greatrejoicings when the animals were brought in, and westopped early that night to celebrate the doubleevent—of getting out of the sudd region and havinga renew
Five years in the Sudan . thoughwe could well have done with another, as my men had,like myself, become accustomed to good living, andresented being without their usual supply of tendermeat. I took a flying shot at it as it rose to boundover an ant-heap, and to my enormous surprise it fellto the shot. I was not a very good rifle-shot in thosedays; I was always uncertain to a fearful degree,and could never be sure of my day. There were greatrejoicings when the animals were brought in, and westopped early that night to celebrate the doubleevent—of getting out of the sudd region and havinga renewed supply of venison. But it was lonely work sometimes as the sun wentdown, and I think that I used to feel it more when Ihad been having a successful day with the gun thanI did at other times. There was no one to talk it allover with; there was nothing to do when the sunhad once fallen, but feed, and drop into bed. Then,with thousands of mosquitoes making hideous musicin my ears, I would read till I could read no more,. V- •*2_4?^«r5?- ELEPHANT SHOOTING 91 and fall to sleep as soon as possible. I must say thatI never found much difficulty in doing this even whenin normal health; later, when I had developed aSudan liver, it was agony sometimes to have to keepawake at all; but I had every cause to be thankfulthat I was able to sleep when I was in the swampsof the Upper Nile. The Bahr-el-Ghazal, which literally translatedmeans the Eiver of the Gazelles, is a direct con-tinuation of the White Nile, though it is in realityonly a tributary ; the Bahr-el-Gebel (the River of theMountains), which meets the Bahr-el-Ghazal at LakeNo, at the northern end of the sudd, being the mainriver. The Bahr-el-Ghazal is well named, at least itwould be if the word game or antelope hadbeen substituted for gazelle, for it is full of antelopeand other game from its source to its mouth. It was up this river that I got first blood. On mytrip up the Sobat I had necessarily to confine myselfto the shoo
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