470 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



went to the kraal — about a mile down the river — 

 where, by the offer of ten loaded cartridges, we got 

 a man to go with us as guide, it being at the 

 same time understood that we were, if possible, to 

 shoot him a buffalo or sea-cow, in which expecta- 

 tion he took with him three young fellows to help 

 carry the meat. At this kraal the people had a 

 large canoe with which they cross the river when it 

 is flooded in the rainy season. After half an hour's 

 delay, we again made a start, and for about three 

 hours kept along a well-beaten Kafir footpath, run- 

 ning in a north-easterly direction parallel with and 

 not far from the Umniati. We then left the path, 

 which our guide told us led to another kraal on the 

 banks of the river, and about eleven o'clock reached 

 a large hole of water in the bed of a dry stream. 

 At this place it was evident from the spoors that 

 several black rhinoceroses were in the habit of 

 drinking nightly. Here we made a cup of tea and 

 fried some meat, and then pushed on again ; the 

 country had not been very level all the morning, 

 but we now got into a mass of hills of a very rough, 

 broken character ; we saw no small game, but a 

 good many black rhinoceros spoors. Whenever we 

 topped a higher hill than usual, the prospect that 

 met our eyes was always the same — an unbroken 

 succession of wooded hills, that stretched as far as 

 the eye could reach towards the north, north-west, 

 and north-east. 



Upon reaching another deep gully with a pool of 

 water in its bed about three in the afternoon, our 

 guide told us that we must sleep here, as the next 

 water was a long way ahead. Here, as at the last 

 pool, there was a good deal of rhinoceros spoor, so, 

 leaving all the Kafirs but our gun-carriers to make 



