76 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



sufficient water for drinking purposes at the small 

 hole, and it being already late, I directed my boys to 

 make a skerm on the slope of a hill close by, and 

 then, taking one of my gun-carriers with me, went 

 down the river to see if it was anywhere near. I 

 had not gone a hundred yards before a large herd of 

 buffaloes and zebras feeding on the bank, and some 

 in the river bed about three hundred yards off, 

 showed me that there was water near. 



Having still some fresh meat, and not wishing to 

 fire for fear of disturbing elephants, I walked straight 

 down towards the buffaloes, who, after taking a good 

 look at the intruder, turned, and, headed by the 

 zebras, went off at a lumbering gallop for about a 

 hundred yards, then collected into a dense mass, turned 

 again, took another look, and finally disappeared over 

 a piece of rising ground. 



I now went down to look at the water, and found 

 not one, but a succession of large pools. At one 

 place there was a little basin under a steep bank, as 

 clear and cool as crystal, as it was so sheltered by 

 the overhanging ledge that the sun never shone upon 

 it. Running down to these pools, at right angles to 

 the course of the river, were two valleys between low 

 ranges of hills, down each of which, and along both 

 banks of the river, came innumerable elephant paths, 

 all converging to the water holes. By the spoor, 

 the broken trees round about, etc., this seemed to 

 be an old time-honoured drinking-place of theirs, 

 and, moreover, as if only the males resorted to it, for 

 — although up and down the river, along the paths, 

 and all around, lay the spoor, some old, some quite 

 fresh, of what my imagination pictured to be gigantic 

 tusked bulls — not a single cow spoor was to be seen. 

 The tracks of game, too, of almost every sort, but 



