A Thousand Miles in a Machilla 



ground is covered with dead leaves, twigs, and 

 branches, it is extremely difficult to move with the 

 stillness requisite in forest hunting. 



Elephant. Elephants are very numerous in 

 the Reserve to the westward of the high road in 

 Central Angoniland, and fairly so in the Bua 

 district. Seventy pounds is considered a good 

 tusk; but big elephants are not easy to find, for 

 every resident is an elephant hunter so much 

 so that the desire to meet with other game is 

 hardly understood and, besides, the district is 

 frequented by professional hunters from over the 

 Rhodesian border, much to the disgust of the local 

 sportsmen. 



The herds are a good deal harried, so they keep 

 continually on the move, and it is consequently 

 difficult to get in touch with them. Water as well 

 as food must be carried, as the country is short of 

 water in the dry season, and two or three nights 

 out on the spoor are not unlikely. Only once did 

 we chance on elephants, and then they were on the 

 edge of the reserve, in an inaccessible position so 

 far as we were concerned. None were met with 

 in the Bua country, and though a single bull was 

 reported on two occasions as having been seen the 

 previous night in the immediate vicinity of our 

 camp, we were unable to follow the tracks owing to 

 the difficulties entailed. 



It is waste of time to follow spoor for a few 

 hours and then relinquish it; and as one cannot go 

 after elephant with a large following, it would have 

 necessitated a division of the caravan. I must have 



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