A DAY IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 11 



been disappointed in water in the Lotsani river-bed, 

 and for forty-eight hours the oxen had tasted no 

 liquid. In our barrels we had just sufficient muddy 

 water for ourselves and servants ; we were therefore 

 all anxious to reach Seruey, with its better prospect 

 of fair water. 



We had trekked a good portion of the night, and at 

 earliest dawn, tired of the incessant jolting, we rose, 

 put on our clothes, took down our shot-guns from 

 their wagon-hooks, and proceeded to look for some 

 breakfast. It was a glorious morning. The sun 

 came up with all that magnificence which in these 

 regions he never fails to display day after day ; the 

 air was cool, sweet, and wonderfully refreshing. We 

 found ourselves travelling in a sort of shallow grassy 

 valley, skirted upon either hand by low stony hills, 

 well clothed with bush and grass. While my shoot- 

 ing comrades, Mackay and Dove, took the left-hand 

 side, I made my way to the right. There was no 

 choice for shooting ; everywhere the veldt looked 

 likely for fraucolin, and we had already heard the 

 scream of " pheasants " from the hills around. I 

 took my liver-coloured pointer, Don, to assist my 

 quest ; Dove and Mackay had another pointer, 

 Scotty, and a well-nosed mongrel, Ponto, to help 

 them out. We were not long in finding game. 

 Except along the Crocodile river (Limpopo), and 

 by the spreading lagoons of the Botletli, I never saw 



