Around, On All Sides, Flickered
The Fire-Flies, Who Had Come To See If Our Fire Was Not A Big
Relation Of Their Own, And They Were The Sole Representatives, With
Ourselves, Of Animal Life.
When the moon had gone, the sky, still
lit by the stars, seeming indeed to be in itself lambent, was very
lovely, but it shared none of its light with us, and we sat round
our fire surrounded by an utter darkness.
Cold, clammy drifts of
almost tangible mist encircled us; ever and again came cold faint
puffs of wandering wind, weird and grim beyond description.
I will not weary you further with details of our ascent of the Ogowe
rapids, for I have done so already sufficiently to make you
understand the sort of work going up them entails, and I have no
doubt that, could I have given you a more vivid picture of them, you
would join me in admiration of the fiery pluck of those few
Frenchmen who traverse them on duty bound. I personally deeply
regret it was not my good fortune to meet again the French official
I had had the pleasure of meeting on the Eclaireur. He would have
been truly great in his description of his voyage to Franceville. I
wonder how he would have "done" his unpacking of canoes and his
experiences on Kondo Kondo, where, by the by, we came across many of
the ashes of his expedition's attributive fires. Well! he must have
been a pleasure to Franceville, and I hope also to the good Fathers
at Lestourville, for those places must be just slightly sombre for
Parisians.
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