BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 431 



to an Acacia tree, growing from the bank of the river, where 

 he might kick, struggle, and roll at will, without harming 

 himself, all day; and at night I made a good fire and slept 

 by his side. 



On the 1 7th of September, as game was becoming scarce 

 in consequence of our guns and fires, and lions and rhinoceros 

 abounded, I judged it best to proceed no farther, but began 

 retracing our steps. Several species of Acacia were coming 

 into flower. A rhinoceros visited us at night and scared our 

 cattle, but did no harm. Next day we captured two young 

 giraffes, which I spared no pains to convey in good health to 

 head-quarters ; but again disappointment awaited me. One 

 of them burst the strap that confined her, and could not be 

 secured without such injury that she died. The other refused 

 to walk, the heat seeming to exhaust these creatures, and we 

 found great difficulty in transporting it by waggon, which we 

 did for five days, when it had become quite tame ; and then, 

 to our great vexation, was seized with some complaint in the 

 head and died. We were travelling down the dry channel 

 of a small river, and Mr. Zeyher and I slept there nightly, 

 stretched across the narrow bed, which is the securest place 

 for the animals ; but we narrowly escaped a very alarming 

 visitor, a rhinoceros, who came quite close to us, poking for 

 sport-holes in the bank of the river with his horn, and would 

 infallibly have trodden on us, but that he fortunately turned 

 back by the way he came just before reaching the spot where 

 we lay. The following night a storm came on, just as we 

 were securing the horses ; one was alarmed by the lightning 

 and ran away, and we could not recover him in the dark. It 

 was impossible to sleep that night j the incessant roaring of 

 the lions made me give up the horse for lost, but at day- 

 break, to my great joy, I saw him standing quietly by the 

 waggon. The elands were most troublesome captives ; some- 

 times they would neither walk nor lead, and again they would 

 ^n in the opposite direction to that which we wanted. 

 More than once we were overtaken by heavy rain, and wetted 

 to the skin ; and as I had left most of my clothes in the 



