392 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



effects in the distance. At night the lions 

 and hyenas roared or howled, and some of 

 the tiny fever owls impudently answered them 

 back. 



Various adventures came our way, some of 

 which have been elsewhere narrated. Here we 

 killed the very big buffalo that nearly got Billy.* 

 In addition, we collected two more specimens of 

 the Neuman's hartebeeste, and two Chanler's 

 reed buck. 



But Mavrouki's glowing predictions as to roan 

 were hardly borne out by facts. According 

 to him the mountains simply swarmed with 

 them he had seen thirty-five in one day, etc. 

 Of course we had discounted this, but some old 

 tracks had to a certain extent borne out his 

 statement. 



Lunch time one day, however, found us on 

 top of the highest ridge. Here we hunted up a 

 bit of shade, and spent two hours out of the 

 noon sun. While we lay there the sky slowly 

 overcast, so that when we aroused ourselves to 

 go on, the dazzling light had softened. As time 

 was getting short, we decided to separate. Mem- 

 ba Sasa and Mavrouki were to go in one direc- 

 tion, while C., Kongoni and I took the other. 



* " The Land of Footprints." 



