72 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



country to the north-west, in the direction of the 

 Victoria Falls. As none of my " boys " (all native 

 servants in the interior of South Africa are called 

 " boys," no matter what their age may be) had any 

 knowledge of the country in which we were about to 

 hunt, I had all the calabashes filled with water early 

 in the morning before starting, though from the lie 

 of the land I hardly anticipated our suffering much 

 from want of that thrice-blessed element. However, 

 it is always best to be on the safe side, and as it 

 turned out we did not reach water till late in the 

 afternoon, when coming upon a large elephant path, 

 we knew there must be some at no great distance, 

 and following the path, soon came out upon a fine 

 valley, running through which was a sand river with 

 pools of water at intervals along its course. 



At some distance up the valley some zebras and 

 impala were quietly feeding down towards the river, 

 and nearer to us, just on the edge of the bush, stood 

 a small herd of sable antelope— amongst them one 

 particularly fine old bull, with a magnificent pair ot 

 horns curling over almost to his haunches. 



Although we still had some buffalo meat left, and 

 by firing with a heavy gun in the still of the evening 

 I risked disturbing elephants, if there were any in 

 the neighbourhood, still, as the wind was favourable, 

 and we were as yet unperceived, I could not resist the 

 desire to possess myself of those long sweeping horns ; 

 so, bidding my Kafirs lie down, I took the most 

 carefully sighted of the two elephant guns, which 

 were the only weapons I had with me, and, stalking 

 carefully from bush to bush, at length arrived within 

 about 1 20 yards of the herd. At this moment the 

 old fellow, being nearer than the others, must have 

 caught an indistinct glimpse of me behind the bush ; 



