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 they are often very effectually concealed by the herbage.

In the course of the afternoon we turned into a road leading northwards that subsequently proved to be the direct route between Mamusa and Konana; the track had probably not been open to vehicles until within the last three months, though apparently it had been previously used as a footpath by the natives. We were now on the edge of a plain that extended east and west as far as the eye could reach, but was bounded on the north by some hill-tops, and broken in the same direction by clumps of wood; these, however, were some miles away. A lovely evening passed into just as lovely a night, and the full moon, encircled by the very slightest of halos, and stars twinkling with a subdued lustre, shed a kindly glimmer over the dark grey plain. In spite of fatigue, I lay awake long enjoying the beauty of the scene, my companions all sound asleep, and the dogs the sole sharers of my watch.

A sudden movement on the part of Niger disturbed me from my reverie; followed by Onkel, another of our dogs, he sprang forward and began to growl. The long-drawn howl of a spotted hyæna had broken the stillness of the night, and though it was, as I supposed, at some distance, it quite accounted for the agitation of the dogs. I was so well accustomed to the sound that I did not pay much regard to it, and prepared to lay down my head to sleep; but so obstreperous did the dogs