"THE CLICK." 135 Kerimu was our halting-place ; it is surrounded by fields, in wliicli a kind of small bean grew in large quantities. This night we had no huts, but slept under a very large tree, the natives forming a circle round us, while outside them there was a ring of fires to keep off the wild beasts. The language of the people in this district is not musical ; they use the " click " so well known in South African languages, but which is not found in the centre of Africa ; and as far as I have experienced, this is the only Central African dialect which has the clicking sound. The natives could not understand our sitting up far into the night writing letters and journals by firelight, and asked one of our boys what we were doing, suggesting that we were insane.

The next march of twenty-three miles was through a thorn jungle, having at intervals patches of grassland. The trees were larger than we had seen for a long time, and some very fine timber could be obtained here. Large masses of porphyry were at times seen, but the soil was mostly ironstone and sand, with a little ilmenite. The ground was rolling, but none of the depressions were more than 100 feet below the general level of the country, which here slopes gently to the north-west. Elephant spore was seen everywhere. In the march we passed the " Mahatta-el-Sinn," where, in " the good old times," all the ivory was collected to be taken to Khartoum, and we camped in a stony valley