Every Once In A While We Managed A
Glimpse Of The Sullen Oily River Through The Dense Leaf Screen On
Its Banks.
The water looked thick as syrup, of a deadly menacing
green.
Sometimes we saw a loathsome crocodile lying with his nose
just out of water, or heard the snorting blow of a hippopotamus
coming up for air. Then the thicket forced us inland again. We
stepped very slowly, very alertly, our ears cocked for the
faintest sound, our eyes roving. Generally, of course, the
creatures of the jungle saw us first. We became aware of them by
a crash or a rustling or a scamper. Then we stood stock listening
with all our ears for some sound distinguishing to the species. Thus I
came to recognize the queer barking note of the bushbuck, for
example, and to realize how profane and vulgar that and the beautiful
creature, the impalla, can be when he forgets himself. As for the
rhinoceros, he does not care how much noise he makes, nor how
badly he scares you.
Personally, I liked very well to circle out in the more open
country until about three o'clock, then to enter the river jungle
and work my way slowly back toward camp. At that time of day the
shadows were lengthening, the birds and animals were beginning to
stir about. In the cooling nether world of shadow we slipped
silently from thicket to thicket, from tree to tree; and the
jungle people fled from us, or withdrew, or gazed curiously, or
cursed us as their dispositions varied.
While thus returning one evening I saw my first colobus. He was
swinging rapidly from one tree to another, his long black and
white fur shining against the sun. I wanted him very much, and
promptly let drive at him with the 405 Winchester. I always
carried this heavier weapon in the dense jungle. Of course I
missed him, but the roar of the shot so surprised him that he
came to a stand. Memba Sasa passed me the Springfield, and I
managed to get him in the head. At the shot another flashed into
view, high up in the top of a tree. Again I aimed and fired. The
beast let go and fell like a plummet. "Good shot," said I to
myself. Fifty feet down the colobus seized a limb and went
skipping away through the branches as lively as ever. In a moment
he stopped to look back, and by good luck I landed him through
the body. When we retrieved him we found that the first shot had
not hit him at all!
At the time I thought he must have been frightened into falling;
but many subsequent experiences showed me that this sheer
let-go-all-holds drop is characteristic of the colobus and his
mode of progression. He rarely, as far as my observation goes,
leaps out and across as do the ordinary monkeys, but prefers to
progress by a series of slanting ascents followed by
breath-taking straight drops to lower levels.
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