440 THE GIANT ELAND [ch. xv 



of which I have already spoken and of another tree. 

 One of their marked habits — shared in some degree by 

 their forest cousin, the bongo — was breaking the higher 

 branches with their horns, to get at the leaves ; they 

 thus broke branches two or three inches in diameter 

 and seven or eight feet from the ground, the crash of 

 the branches being a sound for which we continually 

 listened as we followed the tracks of a herd. They 

 were far more wary than roan, or hartebeest, or any of 

 the other buck, and the country was such that it was 

 difficult to see more than a couple of hundred yards 

 ahead. 



It took me three hard days' work before I got my 

 eland. Each day I left camp before sunrise, and on 

 the first two I came back after dark, while it always 

 happened that at noon we were on a trail and could not 

 stop. We would walk until we found tracks made that 

 morning, and then the gun-bearers and the native guide 

 would slowly follow them, hour after hour, under the 

 burning sun. On the first day we saw nothing ; on the 

 next we got a moment's glimpse of an eland, trotting at 

 the usual slashing gait. I had no chance to fire. By 

 mid-afternoon on each day it was evident that further 

 following of the trail we were on was useless, and we 

 plodded campward, tired and thirsty. Gradually the 

 merciless glare softened ; then the sun sank crimson 

 behind a chain of fantastically carved mountains in the 

 distance ; and the hues of the after-glow were drowned 

 in the silver light of the moon, which was nearing the 

 full. 



On the third day we found the spoor of a single bull 

 by eight o'clock. Hour after hour went by while the 

 gun-bearers, even more eager than weary, puzzled out 

 the trail. At half-past twelve we knew we were close 



