CHAP. VIII. ANECDOTES OF ANTELOPES. 393 



course, or you will not see a single one — and shoot them 

 as they patter about among the dead leaves which strew 

 the game-paths, or catch them while feeding on some 

 favourite bush. In this way you may not only kill 

 several, but you will see the recesses of an African forest 

 when the varieties of its shade and shadow are especially 

 beautiful, and you are continually passing through the 

 most lovely spots, which would never otherwise be seen. 

 Nothing can be more pleasant than so stealing along in 

 the cool of early dawn among the enormous trunks of the 

 yellow-wood trees, from whose far-off tops monkeys silently 

 peer down to watch you, having first so concealed them- 

 selves among the dense foHage, that you can scarcely 

 distinguish them — they have a most wonderful power of 

 hiding, even in trees comparatively open, — and where 

 great baboons almost deafen you with their hoarse bark 

 of alarm, mingled with defiance ; but though a very 

 delightful way, it is also an extremely difficult one to 

 succeed in, especially to shoe-wearing Europeans. 



Natives can, and do, attain to absolute noiselessness, 

 so to speak, as do also a few whites who have learned 

 young, and have been apt pupils ; but very generally 

 people come back after an hour or two, and declare that 

 jungles well known to be teeming with game do not 

 contain a single antelope. Of course, if you are heard, 

 even by the birds, the alarm will spread, and you will see 

 nothing, and in jungles so dense that for twenty yards at 

 a time you are forced to crawl on your hands and knees 

 it really is difficult never to rustle a leaf or break a dry 

 twig. For this reason it is a very common plan to start 

 an hour or two before the usual time, and after finding a 



