quite unnecessary addition to my troubles : misfor- 

 tunes were coming thick and fast ! 



Half an hour was wasted in watching and searching ; 

 but we saw no more of crocodile or bullock, and as 

 there was nothing to be done I turned up stream to 

 find a shallower and a safer crossing. 



At best it was not pleasant : the water was waist- 

 high and racing in narrow channels between and over 

 boulders and loose slippery stones, and I was glad to 

 get through without a tumble and a swim. 



The country was rough on the other side, and the 

 old grass was high and dense, for no one went there in 

 those days, and the grass stood unburnt from season 

 to season. Climbing over rocks and stony ground, 

 crunching dry sticks underfoot, and driving a path 

 through the rank tambookil grass, it seemed well-nigh 

 hopeless to look for a shot ; several times I heard buck 

 start up and dash off only a few yards away, and it 

 began to look as if the wiser course would be to turn 

 back. At last I got out of the valley into more level 

 and more open ground, and came out upon a ledge 

 or plateau a hundred yards or more wide, with a low 

 ridge of rocks and some thorns on the far side quite 

 a likely spot. I searched the open ground from my 

 cover, and seeing nothing there crossed over to the 

 rocks, threading my way silently between them and 

 expecting to find another clear space beyond. The 

 snort of a buck brought me to a standstill among the 

 rocks, and as I listened it was followed by another and 

 another from the same quarter, delivered at irregular 

 intervals ; and each snort was accompanied by the 



432 



