XXI WATERBUCK SHOT 453 



carelul crawl soon brought us within range ot the 

 still unsuspicious herd. Jameson then fired, and 

 knocked over a fine cow. Once more all gloomy 

 thoughts of possible starvation ahead were banished, 

 and, having wood, water, and meat, we at once pro- 

 ceeded to make a hearty meal, after which we again 

 struck away to the east. 



All that day we passed through great quantities 

 of elephant spoor, but all, alas ! too old to be of any 

 use to us. One herd, that must have been there 

 less than a month before us, had literally strewn the 

 ground with broken branches over many acres, and 

 peeled the bark from every second machabel tree 

 (the bark and leaves of this tree are the favourite 

 food of the elephant in this part of the country). A 

 little before sunset we struck a fine stream of beauti- 

 fully clear water babbling over a rocky bed, and 

 followed it into a deep gorge through the hills. As 

 we were picking our road along the steep side of 

 this gorge, a waterbuck bull rushed out of the reeds 

 below us, and took up the hill on the opposite side 

 of the ravine. I fired at and missed him with my 

 first shot, but knocked him over with a second. 

 Here we camped for the night in order to make the 

 most of the meat, for game still appeared to be very 

 scarce. During the night a light drizzling rain fell. 



July l<^th. — We made our way through the gorge 

 into an open marshy valley between two ranges of 

 hills, and, after a struggle through an immense vley 

 of long wet grass, struck a Kafir footpath, which we 

 resolved to follow, as we thought it would be pretty 

 sure to bring us to a kraal, where the people would 

 be able to give us some information about the 

 country on ahead. As we had surmised, a three 

 hours' steady tramp brought us to some old mealie 



