Page:In brightest Africa.djvu/256

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

and they spent the night in hovels which they constructed in various places around camp, the chief characteristic of which was a limited space which insured crowding and a roof which would keep off the rain.

The first day after we reached the Saddle Camp we went on a fruitless hunt up and down the slopes of Karisimbi. With the guides cutting a path as they go, a party does not cover a great deal of distance in a day. Nor is there any need for fast going, for the gorilla does not range far, nor even when pursued does he go fast. On the other hand, even after the guides have cut a "path" the going is sufficiently difficult underfoot and so precipitous in these mountains that a march of five or six miles is a fair day's work, especially for a sick man. We saw no fresh signs of gorilla on this first ladies' hunt. We did run on to a buffalo trail, but we did not come up to the animals, probably because of the fact that I was not very keen about it as it was very dense country and not at all the sort of place in which to hunt buffalo with ladies.

The next day we went up the slopes of Karisimbi farther to the west. We had not been out of camp more than an hour and a half when I stopped to make a panoramic motion picture of the wonderfully beautiful view of the surrounding country. Just as I was about to begin cranking, a signal from the guides who had gone on ahead resulted in our going quickly to them where they pointed out moving bushes a little distance down the slope. We followed the guides rapidly for a short distance, down on our hands and