78 CATTLE 



Ramokvvebani river, close to the waggon-track from Tati to Bulavvayo, 

 and at that time there were probably other herds in south-western 

 Matabililand. These, however, were rapidly shot down — chiefly by 

 native hunters — till in 1895 only one small herd was left in the 

 country, and this was probably swept away by rinderpest. 



"In the latter part of 1872, when hunting to the north-east of 

 Bulawayo, so soon as I got beyond the Matabili kraals and cattle- 

 posts, I found buffaloes numerous. In 1873, to the north-west of 

 Bulawayo, where the country was covered with forest and bush, 

 buffaloes, often in very large herds, occurred wherever there was 

 water. The following year I followed the Zambesi westwards to the 

 mouth of the Chobi, and then hunted for several months along the 

 latter river. Buffaloes were still abundant along the Zambesi in 

 the neighbourhood of the Victoria Falls, and I saw a large herd 

 grazing on a small grassy island to which they must have swum from 

 the mainland ; and on the Chobi we found them in prodigious numbers 

 all along the river, although never more than a mile or so away from 

 the water. In 1877 I again visited the Chobi, and although the 

 buffaloes had been driven from the neighbourhood of Kazungula, the 

 trading-station at the junction of the Chobi and the Zambesi, they 

 were still in vast numbers a little farther up the former river. In 

 1879 I found them numerous along the Machabi river (an outlet of 

 the Okavango), as well as in the neighbourhood of the great reed-bed 

 in which the Mababi river loses itself. Till 1878, buffaloes were also 

 numerous along the Botletli river near Lake Ngami, but in that )'ear 

 they were all killed or driven away by the Boers on their way to 

 Ovampoland. From 1879 ^^ 189I) although my wanderings often 

 led me into the district between the plateau of Mashonaland and the 

 Zambesi, where buffaloes were fairly numerous, I did not again meet 

 with them in large numbers till I visited the valley of the Pungwi in 

 the latter year, and again in 1892. During these two seasons I once 

 more found myself in a district where buffaloes were to be seen almost 

 daily in large herds, although less numerous than they once were on 

 the Chobi. 



" Buffaloes calve from January to March, some months later than 

 any of the antelopes living in the same country. The calves are 

 reddish brown when newly born, but, as they grow, the red tinge 

 gradually disappears, when they become dun -brown, not turning 

 black till they are nearly if not quite three years old. When in their 

 prime, buffaloes in South Africa are covered with a fairly abundant 

 coat of coarse black hair, while the large drooping ears are edged with 



