26 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



from hunger. I had started at sunrise, and when 

 the moon was about an hour high, at last reached 

 the foot of the mountains I had been making for, 

 having crossed, I am sure, an enormous extent of 

 country. I had been able to get over the even 

 ground all right, walking along mechanically ; but, 

 weakened as I was by want of food and water, it 

 was all I could do to climb up the steep, rocky hill, 

 and I was forced to sit down and rest at every 

 few yards. At last, however, I reached the top, 

 expecting to see the maize - fields of Bamangwato 

 beneath me on the other side, and bitter indeed was 

 my disappointment when I saw nothing but range 

 upon range of rugged, stony hills. As, however, I 

 now needed rest, and nothing more could be cione 

 till the following day, I established myself behind a 

 large rock and prepared to pass another cold and 

 hungry night, in no very happy frame of mind, for 

 I thought I was doomed to die of starvation and 

 thirst in the wilderness, my fate remaining a mystery 

 to all my friends ; but mingled with this came a 

 feeling that it was too hard to die thus like a rat in a 

 hole, and, though things certainly looked desperate 

 at present, I still felt some gleam of hope that they 

 would eventually come right. 



I did not suffer so much from the cold on the top 

 of this range of hills as I had done on the two preced- 

 ing nights down on the plain, nor did I feel the pangs 

 of hunger to any great degree ; but, on the other 

 hand, my thirst was now intolerable, my throat, 

 tongue, and lips being quite dry and swollen, so that 

 it was very painful to swallow. Before sunrise the 

 next morning I left my stony couch, and went to the 

 edge of the hill to take a look round. Being on a 

 considerable elevation, I commandeci a view over a 



