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Bushman went in pursuit. They followed it, the animal 
apparently always about to be taken, until they discovered they 
were bushed and night was falling. They had to spend the 
night in the forest, and return without the animal. Next day 
he sent a man to try and find it, but the man never came back, 
nor had he heard of him since. Whether the hartebeest killed 
him, or whether he chose to desert, no one could say. 
A tragic incident was touched upon by Mr. Hodson. He 
was talking about the “‘ great thirst,” the suggestive name given 
to a track of the desert where one journeyed for five or six days 
without finding a drop of water. Crossing this terrible ‘ thirst,”’ 
he found the body of an Englishman. “The vultures and 
jackals had got there before me, so I will say no more about 
that.” Underneath the head was a letter. Mr Hodson read the 
letter to his audience. Terrible in its pathetic brevity, it told 
how the writer was dying of thirst, that he had no strength left, 
and it gave directions for the disposal of certain property. 
“Tamdying;.. . alittle water would have saved me.” But 
the most pathetic portion of all was the dying man’s thought for 
his relatives. He did not wish to harrow them with the know- 
ledge of how he died ; ‘tell them I died of fever.” 
Mr. Hodson was able to tell his audience much about the 
Kalahari desert and of that beneficent provision of nature, 
which, while depriving the land of water, allows for the growth 
of melons, from which the natives obtain both food and drink. 
He protested against the common idea that the Bushman was 
altogether a degraded person ; he might not have much intellect, 
but in knowledge of the conditions under which he lived and of 
his surroundings he was not to be excelled. He knew all the 
lore of nature around him. Another misconception to be 
dispersed was that the ostrich seeks safety by burying its head in 
the sand. He own experience was that as soon as you startled 
an ostrich it was off at the speed of a motor-car, and was soon 
out of sight. 
Besides the Kalahari desert, Mr. Hodson had spent some 
time in Wgamiland, which is as well watered as the desert is 
dry, and his observations on tkese two districts supplied his 
audience with much interesting matter. 
The President of the Natural History Society, Dr. Harrison, 
mentioned that Mr. Hodson has been elected a Fellow of the 
Royal Geographical Society. 
