CHAPTER VIII 



Koodoo — Impala — Tenacity of Life — Water-buck — A New Servant — 

 The " Chobe " River — Pookoo Antelopes — Buffaloes — A Wounded 

 Cow — Elephant-shooting — Lions at Night — Abundance of Buffalo 

 — The "Pookoo Flats" — Mosquitoes and Tsetse-Flies. 



It was on the ist of July 1874 that we broke up 

 our camp at the Victoria Falls, where we had passed 

 a pleasant week, viewing and reviewing from every 

 point of vantage this grandly beautiful work of 

 Nature. 



Following the course of the river, and keeping 

 close along the bank, we found the walking in most 

 parts very tolerable, though in places the sand-belts, 

 thickly timbered and covered with dense underwood, 

 came right down to the water's edge. Just before 

 sundown, as we were making a cut across a neck of 

 land to avoid a large bend of the river, I descried the 

 head and ears of a koodoo cow, gazing intently at 

 us from the edge of a patch of bush, and calling 

 Captain G.'s attention to it, he immediately fired, 

 but the range was rather far, and whether the shot 

 took effect or not, I cannot say ; at any rate the 

 animal bounded away through the bushes, followed 

 by several more, including two bulls. One of these 

 latter carried a very fine pair of horns, so I seized my 

 ten-bore rifle from the hands of the Kafir who was 

 carrying it, and ran at my utmost speed, skirting 



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