Animal life abounded also in the open country of Lotuka,--a land covered with shrubs, with broad, grassy clearings and sandy flats. The ground was strewn with the shells of _Achatina zebra_; small lizards and snakes of various kinds--among them the rare _Typhlops_--glided over the sand, and larger snakes hissed frightfully and retreated. A concert of croaking frogs would arise from the reedy margins of the half-dry rivers, and on the sandy islands of the Kos enormous crocodiles were watching the children bathing close by. Herds of _Cobus leucotis_[105] grazed on the young grass; large wart hogs issued from holes in the ground. “They were,” writes Emin, “no despicable antagonists, for they can make very good use of their huge tusks. Going further into the bush, I saw the elegant form of a wild cat stealing off with its tail in the air, and heard a loud growl from a leopard which disapproved of my presence. Lions were most plentiful.” [Illustration: RAPHIA PALMS BY A CENTRAL AFRICAN STREAM.] A herd of zebras grazing on the fresh green grass is a pleasant picture, whether surrounded by their frolicking young or running away at a thundering gallop. One does not often meet with the scaly ant-eater, _Manis temmincki_, still less with the earth-pig (_Orycteropus æthiopicus_), but a fine example of the latter edentate having fallen into a pitfall, Emin was able to attest its presence in Nile land. Emin’s journeys in the region of the Bahr-al-Ghazal and along the water-parting between the basins of the Nile and the Congo added greatly to our knowledge of those countries. The forests in these regions he described as magnificent “gallery” woods, in which all the marvels of vegetation unfolded themselves before the enchanted gaze of the botanist. These forests border the streams, and exist only near to running water. The region, however, of immense unbroken forests, in which one may wander for hours without seeing a sunbeam, and where one hears the rain beating upon the summits of the trees without feeling a drop, commences only a little to the west of the Nyam-nyam (Zande) country. There is no doubt that much of the Bahr-al-Ghazal region was originally quite covered with forests, to judge from the remains of virgin woods which still exist. The gradual disappearance of the forest is to be attributed to the comparatively thick population, the constant removal of villages and fields, and to the inroads of both axe and fire. Emin saw the remains of many a gigantic and magnificent forest-tree lying rotting on the ground, having been cut down, and given to decay because it spread too much shade over the crops. After many years of wandering among these regions, he was inclined to think that in ancient times the true Central African forest region, that is, the permanence of evergreen woods containing westerly species, extended much farther to the north than it does to-day. Towards the east of the