124 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



Our intention was to hunt during the coming winter 

 in the country bordering on the Chobe and Zambesi 

 rivers, making a point of visiting the Victoria Falls 

 during the season. As, during the months of January 

 and February, torrents of rain had constantly been 

 falling, the whole country between Gubulawayo and 

 Tati had been converted into a marsh. Travelling 

 by African bullock waggons is slow work at the 

 best of times, but in order to give an idea of how 

 slow it may become in the interior at the end of a 

 very wet season, I will here chronicle the fact that on 

 this journey it took us twenty-three days to reach 

 Mengwe, which is only fifty-nine miles by road from 

 Gubulawayo, although we worked on an average 

 seven or eight hours every day. The waggons were 

 continually sinking right up to the bed plank in the 

 boggy ground, and over and over again the bullocks 

 sank one and all up to their bellies in the mire. 

 Whenever this happened we had to ofF-load the 

 waggons, dig out the wheels, and place logs of wood 

 and chopped brushwood in front of them to prevent 

 them again sinking. At the end of a hard day's work 

 we often found ourselves only a few hundred yards 

 from where we had started in the morning. We 

 broke, too, thirteen disselbooms,^alI of which had to be 

 replaced at a considerable expense of time and labour. 

 Still we always went forwards, and at length reached 

 Tati. Here we met Mr. J. L. Garden and his 

 brother Lieut. Garden, and as the objects they had 

 in view were very much the same as our own, except 

 that they were doing for their pleasure what George 

 Wood and I were making a business of, we soon 

 arranged to travel together as far as the Zambesi. 



1 Disselboom is the pole of the waggon to which the two hind 

 bullocks are yoked. 



