- ters ahead with their loads to Burunga, but retaining
our guides for another hunt in the bamboos.
We had descended well down toward the lower level of the bamboo when the guide led us along a cattle trail up a ridge of Mikeno. We came to a track of a single old male gorilla on this trail, which, after we had followed it for a half hour, had been joined by others. Ultimately we were on a perfectly fresh trail of a whole band. The purpose of the hunt was to get more pictures and to add to our series one more specimen, a young male if possible. At this time I had not seen more than one male with a gorilla band and I felt that a group of two old males, two females, and a youngster of four years would be misleading; that if I used them I would have to use one of the old males as an intruder in the family group. I had to explain to my gun-bearer that we must go slowly because I did not want to come up with the gorillas in jungle so dense that I could not photograph them; and that we must try to manage not to disturb them until they had come to more open country where the chance for observation would be better. We were near the edge of a ravine the opposite slope of which was cleared of bamboo and bush. I suggested to him that if we could possibly see them in a place like that, it would enable us to do the things that we wanted to do. Not that I actually hoped for any such luck; but as a matter of fact, fifteen minutes later we heard the bark of a gorilla. Peeping through the bush we saw the entire band on that opposite slope, all of them in full
