GAME 



Gnarled and twisted acacias of all sorts and sizes, usually 

 with bright white bark and a thin, naked appearance, cover 

 the whole country. Amongst these one finds the curious 

 trees of Euphorbia. In Britain Euphorbias are little green 

 uninteresting weeds, but here some of them are twenty to 

 thirty feet high, with many slender whip-like branches, but 

 no leaves. Others are exactly like Cactus, and take on weird, 

 candelabra-like shapes. Nobody meddles with them for, if 

 the slightest cut is made in the bark, out pours an acrid, 

 white milk which raises painful blisters, and may even cause 

 blindness if a drop touches the eyes. 



Almost all the plants are either covered with thorns or 

 protected by resins, gums, or poisonous secretions. 



Between the scrubby trees the soil is dotted over by little 

 tufts of grass or sedge, but these are so far apart that the 

 tint of the landscape is that of the soil. 



Game is abundant everywhere. Sometimes it is a small 

 bustard or a persistent, raucous guinea-fowl that affords a 

 chance for a good dinner. Occasionally a tiny gazelle, the 

 "paa,*" with large ears, springs out of the thorns and 

 vanishes down the path. I saw footprints of giraffes, and 

 came across ostriches more than once. I also made a per- 

 severing attempt to slay a Clarke's gazelle, an animal with 

 enormous ears and a long thin neck.^ 



These long-necked creatures can see far above the usual 

 short thorny bush, and it is exceeding difficult to get near 

 them. Water probably exists under the stony grit soil, but 

 at present one has to be contented with that found in the 

 stagnant pools at Taru, Maungu, etc., which, if not occupied 

 by the decaying remains of a dead antelope, are, as a rule, 

 drinkable.^ 



* Naturalist in Mid-Africa. 



