THE HOME OF THE ELEPHANT 203 the dry land. On our left were the far-away Gebels Zeraf, five in number, blue in the shimmering atmosphere. All around them was grass-covered plain, with scarcely a tree to be seen.

To the right a strange object appeared, a lump in the distant high grass, and it moved. At one moment it seemed to dodge hither, slowly yet steadily ; then it altered its course and travelled elsewhere, growing steadily larger as it apparently traversed the plain. It was only a steamer, on the hidden main river, which ran at an angle with the Zeraf, and gave the peculiar effect we ourselves would present on our invisible waterway. Far beyond her was the great Mountain Nile, the stream directed from the south once again on the other side of Lake No.

It was on its shores in this latitude that I once counted seventy-five elephants in one evening, some still bathing and drinking in the unreachable swamp, perhaps not 500 yards from the boat. Others streamed across the vast expanse—old bulls with mighty tusks gleaming white in the sun, cows with their little ones following, making lines of slowmoving black objects. One strange effect is shown. A far-distant animal at an instant expands to double his size, and shrinks as quickly again ; it is not due to exaltation on the part of the observer, but to the elephant's back being toward one, and his ears being occasionally held at right angles I The consequent increase in width is enormous. The white skulls of elephants are sometimes seen