We walked for some time along the banks of the river up stream without
seeing any game, and I was struck with the absence of tracks of the
larger animals, which coincided with my remarks on the Asua river many
years previous, when I crossed it about thirty miles higher up, on my
route from Latooka to Shooa.
I expected to return without seeing game, when we suddenly spied a few
waterbuck in the sandy bed of the river, about 300 paces distant.
We made a good stalk, but I only wounded the animal at which I fired at
about 150 yards, and they galloped off through the open forest. I heard
the bullet from the left hand barrel strike a tree stem, which saved the
antelope, but having quickly reloaded, I had a clear and steady shot at
a long range as the large buck suddenly stopped and looked back. I put
up the last sight for 250 yards and took a full bead. To my great
satisfaction the waterbuck with a fine set of horns dropped dead. I
could not measure the distance accurately as we had to descend a rocky
bank, and then, crossing the bed of the Asua, to ascend the steep north
bank before we arrived at tolerably level ground.
Upon reaching the animal, I found the bullet in the neck, where it had
divided the spine. I guessed the distance at about 240 yards. Some of
our Lobore natives, who had kept at a distance behind us, now came up,
and in a short time the noble waterbuck was cut up and the flesh carried
into camp. This species of antelope, when in good condition, weighs
about thirty stone (cleaned).
On March 2 we started at 6 A.M., and marched at a rapid rate along a
hard and excellent path, which inclined upwards from the river for about
eight miles.
The bush was very open, and in many portions the country was a
succession of deep dells, which in the wet season were covered with high
grass, but at this time the young grass was hardly three inches high,
having sprouted after the recent fires.
From an altitude of about 1,000 feet above the Asua river, we had a
splendid view of the entire landscape.
On the east, at about fifty miles distant, was the fine range of lofty
mountains that stretched in a long line towards Latooka. On the west, on
the left bank of the White Nile, which now flowed almost beneath our
feet, was the precipitous mountain Neri, known by the Arab traders as
Gebel huku. This fine mass of rock descends in a series of rugged
terraces from a height of between three and four thousand feet to the
Nile, at a point where the river boils through a narrow gorge between
the mountains.
