CH. XI] ON SAFARI »13 



one groM\s gratefully to accept as water anything that 

 is wet. Klipspringers and baboons were in the precipitous 

 hills around ; and among the rocks were hyraxes (looking 

 like our Eocky Mountain conies, or little chief hares), 

 queer diurnal r;.ts, and bright blue-green lizards with 

 orange heads. Rhinos drank at this pool. We fre- 

 quently saw them on our journey, but always managed 

 to avoid wounding their susceptibilities, and so escaped 

 an encounter. Each day we endeavoured to camp a 

 couple of hours before sundown, so as to give the men 

 plenty of chance to get firewood, pitch the tents, and 

 put everything in order. Sometimes we would make 

 an early start, in which case we would breakfast in the 

 open, while in the east the crescent of the dying moon 

 hung over the glow that heralded the sunrise. 



As we reached the high, rolling downs the weather 

 grew cooler, and many flowers appeared ; those of the 

 aloes were bright red, standing on high stalks above 

 the clump of fleshy, spined leaves, which were hand- 

 somely mottled, like a snake's back. As 1 rode at the 

 head of the safari 1 usually, in the course of the day, 

 shot a buck of some kind for the table. I !iad not time 

 to stalk, but simply took the shots as they came, generally 

 at long range. One day I shot an eland, an old blue 

 bull. We needed the skin for the Museum, and as 

 tliere was water near by we camped where we were. I 

 had already shot a waterbuck that morning, and this 

 and the eland together gave the entire safari a feast of 

 meat. 



On another occasion an eland herd afforded me fun, 

 although no profit. 1 was mounted on Brownie, the 

 zebra- shaped pony. Brownie would still occasionally run 

 off when I dismounted to shoot (a habit that had cost 

 me an eland bull) ; but he loved to gallop after game. 



