150 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



myself, had gone out for a stroll in the afternoon, 

 had not yet returned. Captain Garden during my 

 absence had shot another " pookoo " antelope, which 

 made our fourth that day. As the night was very 

 dark, and the bush unpleasantly thick to get through 

 even in the daytime, we began to think Mr, Garden 

 must have missed his way, and were just about to fire 

 a couple of shots to guide him, when we heard voices 

 in the distance, and a few minutes later he stepped 

 into camp, and we were all of us soon deeply inter- 

 ested in the contents of a pot of " pookoo " stew. 

 Mr. G. had shot an old buffalo bull with his 500- 

 bore Express rifle, and brought the grim-looking 

 head back to camp with him. It must have been a 

 very old animal, for the face was almost devoid of 

 hair, and the horns very close set, but like those ot 

 most of the buffaloes in this part of the country, not 

 at all wide spread, though very deep and rugged, and 

 gnarled as the trunk of an old tree. Mr. Garden 

 had also noticed a good deal of elephant spoor, and 

 as in this dense jungle we were unanimous that it 

 would be useless to hunt in company (as in all prob- 

 ability more than one elephant would seldom be seen 

 at once), I resolved to separate from my kind friends 

 on the following day, and henceforth hunt alone. 

 Accordingly, early the next morning, when crossing 

 the valley where the preceding evening I had shot 

 the buffalo, we cut the fresh spoor of elephants that 

 had passed to and from the river during the night, I 

 proposed to my friends that they should follow them, 

 and leave me to proceed farther up the river. To 

 this they would not agree, but insisted that I should 

 take the spoor and let them push on, as they said 

 they would be sure to find other spoor before long ; 

 and we thus finally settled it, and with hearty wishes 



