122 LARGE GAME. chap. ii. 



but, taking a native with me who was acquainted with 

 the country, I kept on one side in search of game. The 

 coimtry presented the usual pecuharities of all thorn dis- 

 tricts, stunted aloes and thorns clothing the stony ridges, 

 and gradually increasing m numbers until on the flats 

 the latter formed vast thickets, many of them all but 

 impenetrable, while a few euphorbias grew m the hotter 

 spots, and the water-courses, dry during winter, were 

 lined with wild dates and bananas and tree-ferns, with 

 here and there a wild fig-tree, or a white-stemmed um- 

 tombe towering above the rest. We were just in the act 

 of entering one of these thorn thickets when the native 

 who was guidmg me, and who was m front, suddenly 

 stooped down, glanced back to see if I was following, and 

 then, making a motion to say he saw something, ran 

 rapidly though cautiously forward, while I repeated his 

 actions without an idea of what they meant, until he 

 puUed up and pointed out a black mass in front of us, 

 at the same time whispering " kulumane." 



It was a troop of six or seven of those animals, stand- 

 ing huddled together, so that, though I could see theu- 

 outlines, I could hardly distinguish one from another, but 

 as it was evident by their stamping and general uneasiness 

 that they suspected danger, I at once fired. As the bullet 

 told — and it always does so loudly on these thick-skinned 

 animals, — they trotted out, going across me and shghtly 

 separating, so that I could see them plainly and had a 

 capital shot with my second barrel, bringing the one I 

 fired at down on the spot ; but it jumped up again, and 

 the whole of them, either tiurned by the shot, or, more 

 probably, only then discovering for the first time where 



