XXI MATABELE HUNTERS 449 



our gun-carriers, and, leaving the remainder of the 

 Kafirs to make a camp, went in different directions 

 in search of game. About sundown I returned 

 with an oribi ram, and found Jameson there before 

 me with a reedbuck, whose kidneys and undercut 

 were already, under the care of Bokkie, frying to 

 the tune of a most appetising sizzle, in our little 

 frying-pan. 



At the above-mentioned hill the "fly" com- 

 mences, and extends to the north and the north-west 

 without a break, right up to the banks of the Zambesi. 

 On the eastern side of the Umfule there is still a 

 large area of country free from fly, extending as far 

 as Lo Magondi's mountains to the north-east. 



Early on the following day we struck the main 

 river, and followed its course until sundown. On 

 our way we saw many waterbucks, and the tracks of 

 several rhinoceroses, but as they only come down 

 to the river at night to drink, and remain during 

 the heat of the day in the forests and thickets at 

 a considerable distance from the water, one stands 

 little chance of seeing any, unless by following them 

 up. We also met some Matabele hunters who had 

 just shot a waterbuck ; they were all loaded up with 

 the skins (cut into long strips anci dried for sjamboks) 

 of two hippopotami, which they had shot, they said, 

 about a day's walk farther down the river. They 

 told us that we should find the country very moun- 

 tainous farther on. 



July iGlh. — As the Kafirs had foretold, we got 

 into a very rough hilly country, through which the 

 river had forced its way in a succession of foaming 

 rapids, rushing over great boulders of rock, inter- 

 spersed here and there with great, deep, still pools 

 of dark-blue water. 



2 G 



