248 LARGE GAME. chap. v. 



grass, in places above our heads, proved the fertilization 

 which the ancient periodical inundations had carried with 

 them. 



There could be no hesitation or difficulty in following 

 the broad track left by so large an animal as a buffalo 

 through this rank vegetation, and we walked rapidly on 

 in Indian file, the hunter leading, I next, and the two 

 bearers in our rear, until we reached what had evidently 

 been the bed of the river, here about forty yards wide, 

 and which was lined with such perpendicular banks, of 

 twelve or fifteen feet in height, that we at once saw that 

 the buffalo could not have gone down, and on examining 

 the spoor we found that it was a lion the trail of which 

 we had been latterly following, that of the buffalo having 

 no doubt turned off on one side or the other. 



However, as Umdumela said, the lion was evidently 

 after the buffalo, and if we found the one we should find 

 the other ; so we did not turn back, but, separating, went 

 along the banks, searching for an easy descent. Umdu- 

 mela had got down, and I had just seen a place where I 

 could follow his example, when the little boy who was my 

 water-bearer that day — the merest child of ten years old, 

 though the equal in endurance of many a man of more than 

 double his age in civilized countries — exclaimed, "There's 

 the buffalo !" and there indeed was that much-suffering 

 animal hobbling away, evidently quite dead-beat, its 

 broken fore-shoulder showing painfully, and the mere fact 

 of its having lain down in the open being, in itself, suffi- 

 cient proof that it could not go much farther ; it was about 

 sixty yards off, and I fired right and left, bringing it to a 

 standstill with the second barrel. The noise of the shots 



