Well, When I Got Down To Lembarene I Naturally Went On With My
Canoeing Studies, In Pursuit Of The Attainment Of Pace.
Success
crowned my efforts, and I can honestly and truly say that there are
only two things I am proud of - one is that Doctor Gunther has
approved of my fishes, and the other is that I can paddle an Ogowe
canoe.
Pace, style, steering and all, "All same for one" as if I
were an Ogowe African. A strange, incongruous pair of things: but
I often wonder what are the things other people are really most
proud of; it would be a quaint and repaying subject for
investigation.
Mme. Jacot gave me every help in canoeing, for she is a remarkably
clear-headed woman, and recognised that, as I was always getting
soaked, anyhow, I ran no extra danger in getting soaked in a canoe;
and then, it being the dry season, there was an immense stretch of
water opposite Andande beach, which was quite shallow. So she saw
no need of my getting drowned.
The sandbanks were showing their yellow heads in all directions when
I came down from Talagouga, and just opposite Andande there was
sticking up out of the water a great, graceful, palm frond. It had
been stuck into the head of the pet sandbank, and every day was
visited by the boys and girls in canoes to see how much longer they
would have to wait for the sandbank's appearance. A few days after
my return it showed, and in two days more there it was, acres and
acres of it, looking like a great, golden carpet spread on the
surface of the centre of the clear water - clear here, down this side
of Lembarene Island, because the river runs fairly quietly, and has
time to deposit its mud.
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