IX RETURN TO "POOKOO FLATS" 177 



On this island I remained for eight days, or rather 

 I slept there, for every day I went either up or down 

 the river to look for elephant spoor. However, I 

 saw none. The troop out of which I had shot the 

 four had made tracks for more secure retreats. In 

 addition to the want of sport, too, the stench upon 

 the little island was becoming unbearable, so on a 

 Monday morning I once more packed up my traps, 

 and made a start down the river, as I thought I 

 should be more likely to find elephants, and bulls 

 too, in the thick jungles near the mouth of the Chobe, 

 than in the more open country farther west. 



On the fourth day I again reached the " Pookoo 

 Flats " without having met with any elephant spoor 

 whatever. Here I fell in with Henry Wall and 

 Tofts, who told me that they had been to the 

 waggons at Daka, and returned to this part of the 

 country with my comrade Wood, who having found 

 no elephants in the hills to the eastward of Daka, 

 towards the river Gwai, where we had shot a great 

 many the preceding year, had brought one of our 

 waggons and the horses to a pan, situated about 

 twenty miles to the south of the Chobe, and just 

 beyond the range of the tsetse fly. As the waggon 

 was so near, and I now had over 400 lbs. of ivory, 

 which was just as much as my boys could carry, I 

 resolved to proceed to the waggon, and getting a 

 Bushman from Henry Wall to show me the way, I 

 started on the following day, and reached Wood's 

 camp late in the afternoon. The next day we were 

 joined by Mr. and Captain Garden. They had shot 

 two bulls since I last saw them, one a very fine one, 

 whose tusks weighed nearly 70 lbs. apiece. Wood 

 had also shot a splendid bull close to the v/aggon, 

 only three days before my arrival. Here we remained 



N 



