From the Cape to Cairo: The First Traverse of Africa from South to NorthGrogan, Ewart Scott
History
From the Cape to Cairo: The First Traverse of Africa from South to North
Grogan, Ewart Scott
Africa -- Description and travel; Grogan, Ewart Scott, 1874-1967
As I had expected, after a day of very hot sun, the odour was too
tempting, and the Balegga swarmed down from the hills and brought me
what food I wanted. I went for a stroll in the evening, and came on a
small herd of buffalo; they were very small compared with the South
African species, and amongst them were three light brown ones, a bull,
cow, and three-parts-grown calf. They were very beautiful animals, with
a black ridge of hair running along the neck and the top of the
shoulders. I shot the bull, and as my pagasi had as much as they could
carry, I told the natives to cure the hide and send it with the head
into Toro, so I hope to be able to have it described. When I first saw
them I thought they were eland, and it was with the greatest surprise
that I found they had a buffalo’s head attached. The small one was as
light in colour as a reedbuck, and the other two a similar colour round
the rump and the belly.[#] I could gather no information from the
natives as to whether they had seen others; all they knew was that the
buffalo was an evil beast, had once been very numerous, but was now
finished.
[#] I have since found, on reference to the British Museum, that they
were the Congo buffalo. This proves that their distribution is further
East than was imagined. The fact that they were running in the same
herd as the black Eastern variety is of considerable scientific
interest.
*CHAPTER XVII.*
*ALBERT LAKE AND UPPER NILE TO WADELAI.*
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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