xiii THE USUTU RIVER 247 



through an interstice amongst the tree stems, where 

 I could see what I took to be part of his neck. 

 I made a bad shot, however, as my bullet, instead 

 of passing through the opening, imbedded itself 

 in the wood of one of the tree stems, and the inyala 

 went off uninjured. 



On returning to the kraal, Gugawi proposed 

 to take me to a spot some few miles higher up the 

 Usutu, where he said there were plenty of inyalas, 

 whilst at the same time the bush was not so dense 

 as near his kraal. Being by this time thoroughly 

 sick of crawling about bent nearly double, I hailed 

 with delight the idea of finding the game I was 

 seeking in a country where I could walk upright, 

 and visions of inyalas feeding through open glades 

 passed through my mind — visions, alas, which were 

 never realised, for in my small experience I never 

 found these antelopes anywhere except in dense 

 bush. However, I was glad of the change, and 

 soon had everything ready for a move. 



In the afternoon we travelled some five or six 

 miles up the river, and pitched camp in a bit of 

 jungle near the water's edge. The Usutu river 

 is here very broad, and reminded me strongly of 

 parts of the Chobi ; but whereas the banks of the 

 latter river, as I knew it in the early 'seventies, 

 abounded in game of many descriptions, from the 

 elephant downwards, there was not a track to be 

 seen along the Usutu of any kind of animal with 

 the exception of the inyala. All the wealth of 

 wild life which Baldwin saw in this same district 

 in 1854 had melted away before the guns of the 

 native Amatonga hunters ; for, be it noted, this 

 is a country in which but very little game has 

 been killed by white men. Rhinoceroses, buffaloes, 

 koodoos, waterbucks, impalas, lions, — all are gone, 

 the only game left being the inyalas, which owe 

 their preservation to the dense jungles In which 



