482 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



too late to do anything, but we thought our best 

 plan would be to go back again to the vley we had 

 left, and hunt about tor a few days. This we did, 

 and making a comfortable camp, remained there 

 eight days, hunting the country round about, and 

 returning every evening to our vley. We were 

 unfortunate with elephants, for twice we got close 

 to some of them in the thick bush, but they must 

 have detected our tread upon the dead leaves, for 

 we only heard them crashing through the branches, 

 and never even saw them. 



These thickets we found to be full of buffaloes, 

 which drank in the river, passing the noontide heat 

 in the shade of the thick bush. Almost every day 

 we saw large herds of them, and might have killed 

 several, but we only shot two cows for food. 



The open valley in front of the vley of which I 

 have before spoken was a great resort of zebras, 

 sometimes as many as a hundred of these beautiful 

 animals standing round us in troops of from ten to 

 thirty, as we crossed it on our way to or from camp. 

 There were also orreat numbers of the graceful little 

 oribi antelopes always to be seen in twos and threes 

 in this valley. 



One day we did not get back to camp from our 

 day's hunting till about ten o'clock at night ; we 

 had had a hard day of it, and a most toilsome walk 

 home in the dark through the thick thorny bush. 

 When we reached the valley on the other side of 

 which, at a distance of about two miles, our camp was 

 situated, the moon was well up,and cast a soft, subdued 

 light over the long dry grass. We were stepping 

 along the edge of the valley in single file, following 

 a game path, when the leading Kafir stopped, and 

 pointing across the vley, said, " Ini loco " (What's 



