1 8 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



pan, a large open piece of ground, in the centre of 

 which lies a large pan or hollow, in the rainy season 

 a veritable lake, but then, in the middle of winter, as 

 dry as a bone. I'he country was covered in all 

 directions with thick forest or scrubby bush, and, 

 as all know who have travelled there during the dry 

 season, was almost destitute of water, which was only 

 found in odd pools and at long intervals along the 

 waggon road. Except at Pelatsi (nearly twenty-five 

 miles by road from Shakani), where, at the time of 

 which I am writing, there was a Bechuana town, all 

 this desert country, extending from the northern 

 bank of the Limpopo north-west to Lake Ngami, 

 and due north to the far-off" Chobe river, is utterly 

 uninhabited except by a fe:\Y miserable wandering 

 Masaras. 



As I have said before, it was August, and mid- 

 winter in these latitudes. Though the sun was very 

 powerful during the day, being fully as hot as in 

 summer in England, yet the nights were intensely 

 cold, and tea left in the kettle was often frozen — a 

 thing one would hardly expect so far in the interior 

 of Africa (over one thousand miles to the north-east 

 of Cape Town). As the oxen and horses would not 

 get any water before reaching Pehitsi — though of 

 course we carried some with us for our own use — we 

 again inspanned after midnight, and trekked on by 

 moonlight till just before day-dawn. Being out of 

 meat, Dorehill, Mandy, and myself then resolved to 

 let the waggons trek on in the charge of Sadlier, 

 whilst we made a round on horseback in search of 

 game, intending to rejoin him in the evening. So, 

 hastily drinking a cup of hot coffee, we saddled up 

 our horses and started. 



In the early part of the day we came across a troop 



