XXII WART HOG SHOT 471 



a camp, Jameson and 1 went for a ramble, taking 

 different directions in order to cover more ground ; 

 neither of us, however, saw anything. A four hours' 

 walk through a hilly country brought us the follow- 

 ing morning to the banks of the Umfule. At the 

 point where we struck the river we found a large 

 pool enclosed on all sides by a thick hedge, and on 

 the beach the remains ot a lot of huts and poles for 

 drying meat showed where a large number of people 

 had made temporary homes. Here, our guide 

 informed us, his people had last year starved to 

 death and slaughtered a herd of seven hippopotami. 



As a few days later we had an opportunity of observ- 

 ing this process of starving a herd of these animals 

 to death in a large pool in the Umniati, about which 

 I shall in due course give some account, I will here 

 say nothing more concerning this cruel and ex- 

 terminating practice. Close to this place I wounded 

 a waterbuck, and whilst following its spoor, came 

 upon another herd, one of which Jameson shot ; he 

 had hardly put a fresh cartridge into his rifle, when 

 two wild pigs (wart hogs) rushed past him, one of 

 which he bowled over in fine style, as it dashed at 

 full speed down the hill. About here the river runs 

 through a succession of rocky gorges, dashing over 

 huge boulders of basaltic rock. Through these 

 ravines hippopotami must have wandered for count- 

 less ages, for in one place where a ledge of rock ran 

 along the bank of the river, they had worn a path 

 for about twenty yards across it, at least four inches 

 deep into the hard stone. This path worn into the 

 solid rock was the very facsimile of those recently 

 made in soft ground, having the slight ridge all 

 alonor the centre which I have before described. 



Now, from the nature of the river, and the sparse- 



