vrii LARGE HERDS OF BUFFALOES i6i 



The three following days I remahied in the same 

 camp, hunting in the neighbouring bush with the 

 very worst of luck, for though each day I got the 

 fresh spoor of elephants, on all three occasions they 

 winded me and decamped before I caught sight of 

 them. I never saw such a place as this bush for the 

 wind, which never seemed to blow for two minutes 

 together from the same quarter. This I attributed 

 to the different currents of air that were continually 

 blowing over the open marshes on the other side of 

 the river, and seemed to form eddies in the jungle. 

 It was most disheartening, as in elephant-hunting on 

 foot everything depends upon keeping below the 

 wind of these keen-scented brutes, and here this was 

 almost impossible. My only consolation lay in the 

 hope that as the season advanced, and the weather 

 became hotter, the winds would drop and the air 

 become stiller. On each of these three days we 

 encountered more than one large herd of buffiiloes, 

 but having meat I never fired a shot at them for fear 

 of disturbing more valuable game. On the Thursday 

 night a troop of elephant cows came down to drink 

 close to our camp, trumpeting and splashing about 

 in the water for a long time. The spoor of this 

 troop I followed the next day, though unsuccessfully, 

 as I have before said. 



On Saturday morning (July ii), after burying 

 the tusks of the bull I had shot the preceding 

 Monday, being tired of my camp and the bad luck I 

 had met with there, I packed up all my traps and 

 made another start up the river. Whilst crossing 

 Pookoo Flats early in the morning, I saw a black 

 rhinoceros cow with a small calf not much larger 

 than a pig, that, on getting our wind, at once made 

 for the jungle at a quick trot, besides some koodoos 



M 



