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Stalking Expeditions in the Nyika 



observations, in the scorching heat ot the sun, and sending 

 a numl)er ot booty-laden carriers back into camp. At 

 about ten o'clock a.m. my thirsty throat had been 

 refreshed by the last drop of boiling-hot water from the 

 big" hunting-flask, so that now I had to go thirsty until 

 evening, when I was sure of finding water in the distant 

 camp. Hour after hour went by ; all I saw enthralled 

 me — I was then a new-comer in the El Dorado of the 

 African zoology — ^and made me torget my thirst. 



On our return the imusual mishap befell me of my 

 two remaining guides losing their way ; in the fast-coming 

 darkness we plunged into the myriad labyrinths of a 

 thorn-thicket, and by nighttall, scratched and torn by 

 the thorns, it was impossible to get any farther. We 

 had lost our bearings, had ended by wandering round 

 in a circle, and now it became quite clear to me that 

 we should be obliged to spend the night amidst the 

 prickly pears. So we crouched down on a bare place 

 a few feet broad, and as my foot knocked against a 

 hard object, I looked and found it to be the half- 

 mouldered skull of a buftldo, evidenth' a victim of the 

 rinderpest. In the hope of being heard in camp, I 

 foolishly fired away almost all my cartridges, but in vain ; 

 there was no answer. 



Dead-tired, my tongue literally cleaving to the roof 

 ot my mouth, I now crouched clown under a clump of 

 trees grown over by creepers, my gun beside me with 

 my four remaining cartridges. 



A monkey uttered his piercing yell ; an owl replied. 

 Listening, with strained ears, in the absolute darkness, 



5^7 



