or a long time
I get to fancy they're palm-trees, an' that we're sailin' through a
forest without no end to it; an' when I looks over the side an' sees
every reed standin' on its other self, so to speak, an' follers the
under one down till my eyes git lost in the blue sky an' clouds _below_
us, I do sometimes feel as if we'd got into the middle of fairy-land,--
was fairly afloat on the air, an' off on a voyage through the univarse!
But it's them reflections as I like most. Every leaf, an' stalk, an'
flag is just as good an' real _in_ the water as out of it. An' just
look at that there frog, sir, that one on the big leaf which has swelled
hisself up as if he wanted to bust, with his head looking up hopefully
to the--ah! he's down with a plop like lead, but he wos sittin' on his
own image which wos as clear as his own self. Then there's so much
variety, sir--that's where it is. You never know wot you're comin' to
in them swamps. It may be a openin' like a pretty lake, with islands of
reeds everywhere; or it may be a narrow bit like a canal, or a river; or
a bit so close that you go scrapin' the gun'les on both sides. An' the
life, too, is most amazin'. Never saw nothin' like it nowhere. All
kinds, big an' little, plain an' pritty, queer an' 'orrible, swarms here
to sitch an extent that I've got it into my head that this Shire valley
must be the great original nursery of animated nature."

"It looks like it, Disco."

The last idea appeared to furnish food for reflection, as the two
friends here relapsed into silence.

Although Disco's description was quaint, it could scarcely be styled
exaggerated, for the swamp was absolutely alive with animal life. The
principal occupant of these marshes is the elephant, and hundreds of
these monster animals may be seen in one herd, feeding like cattle in a
meadow. Owing to the almost impenetrable nature of the reedy jungle,
however, it is impossible to follow them, and anxious though Disco was
to kill one, he failed to obtain a single shot. Buffaloes and other
large game were also numerous in this region, and in the water
crocodiles and hippopotami sported about everywhere, while aquatic birds
of every shape and size rendered the air vocal with their cries.
Sometimes these feathered denizens of the swamp arose, when startled, in
a dense cloud so vast that the mighty rush of their wings was almost
thunderous in character.

The crocodiles were not only numerous but dangerou