78 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



light, we were up and stirring, and after looking at 

 the priming of the guns, filling the powder bags 

 (when elephant-hunting on foot, we load with the 

 hand from a leather powder bag hung at the side), 

 and putting ten four-ounce bullets into each pouch, 

 I hastily drank a cup of strong coffee, ate a few 

 mouthfuls of grilled meat, and started for the water, 

 leaving my two youngest Kafir boys to look after my 

 blankets and all the traps at the skerm. 



Arrived at the nearest pool, the first glance con- 

 vinced us that our ears had not played us false in 

 the night ; for there, deeply impressed in the soft 

 mud, lay the giant footprints of several splendid bulls. 



A caretul survey round about soon showed us 

 that they had come down by the valley to the right, 

 and after drinking and splashing about at all the 

 pools, had gone out into the low hills on the left ; 

 so putting Minyama, my best spooring Kafir, on the 

 track, we lost no time in starting in pursuit. The 

 troop, as well as could be judged, consisted of about 

 ten or twelve bulls, amongst them three or four 

 regular old teasers, with footprints nearly two feet 

 in diameter. The spoor led us in a north-easterly 

 direction, across low undulating hills, and thev had 

 evidently taken it easy here, feeding about on the 

 succulent " machabel " trees, which were very 

 numerous ; such havoc, indeed, had they committed, 

 that it was easy to follow them without looking for 

 the footprints, just by glancing on ahead at the 

 trees stripped of their bark, and the clusters of fresh 

 leaves and chewed bark left along their track. After 

 following their spoor for about a couple of hours 

 across this sort of country, it led us to some much 

 higher and more rugged hills, and here they had 

 ceased to feed and taken to an old path, stepping it 



