knocked some of them down with sticks. Upon every tree on the islands and river banks the bats were constantly settling, and flying off” again when something alarmed them, such as the breaking of a branch by their own weight. I measured some that were killed, and found that they averaged from eighteen inches to two feet six, from wingtip to wing-tip.

The boys on board and the crew of the steamer cooked and ate them, and maintained that they were very good eating. On one occasion I saw myriads of bats behaving in the same way near Stanley Falls, and I have also seen them in large numbers on the Lualaba. The whole of the Kasai district teems with game — elephant, buffalo, buck, and hog in the forest and swamps; and hippopotami, crocodiles, and birds of every description on the islands and banks, and in the river