CH. II] SOLITARY lUDRS 58 



sais and gun-bearers. I cannot describe the beauty and 

 the unceasing interest of these rides, through the teem- 

 ing herds of game. It was Hke retracing the steps of 

 time for sixty or seventy years, and being back in the 

 days of CornwaUis Harris and Gordon Cunnning, in 

 tlie pahiiy times of the giant fauna of South Africa. 

 On Pease's own farm one day I passed through scores 

 of herds of the beautiful and wonderful wild creatures 

 I have spoken of above ; all told there were several 

 thousands of them. ^Vith the exception of the wilde- 

 beest, most of them were not shy, and I could have 

 taken scores of shots at a distance of a couple of hundred 

 yards or thereabouts. Of course, I did not shoot at 

 anything unless we were out of meat or needed the 

 skin for the collection ; and when we took the skin we 

 almost always took the meat too, for the porters, 

 although they had their rations of rice, depended for 

 much of their well-being on our success with the rifle. 



These rides through the wild, lonely country, with 

 only my silent black followers, had a peculiar charm. 

 W^hen the sky was overcast it was cool and pleasant, 

 for it is a high country ; as soon as the sun appeared 

 the vertical tropic rays made the air quiver above the 

 scorched land. As we passed down a hill-side we 

 brushed through aromatic shrubs, and the hot, pleasant 

 fragrance enveloped us. When we came to a nearly 

 drv watercourse, there would be beds of rushes, beautiful 

 lilies and lush green plants with staring flowers, and 

 great deep green fig-trees, or flat-topped mimosas. In 

 many of these trees there were sure to be native bee- 

 hives ; these were sections of hollow logs hung from 

 the branches ; they formed striking and characteristic 

 features of the landscape. Wherever there was any 

 moisture there were flowers, brilliant of hue and many 



