176 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



plain and desert country. Here and there are 

 clusters and strips of bushes, while along the 

 streams, pools, swamps, and dry watercourses 

 are thick growths of underbrush and trees, 

 spoken of as "dongas." During daytime all of 

 the nocturnal animals lions, leopards, hyenas, 

 jackals, and many species of antelopes as well as 

 myriads of small creatures take to these thick- 

 ets to rest and sleep, and for protection from 

 the sun. 



Selecting a "donga," the hunter stations his 

 porters at intervals of ten feet across one end 

 of the thicket. At a given signal they start 

 toward the other end, shouting, thrashing the 

 brush with sticks, and throwing stones and clubs 

 as they advance. The hunter, on the outskirt, 

 walks along a hundred yards or so ahead of 

 the beaters and shoots the game as it is driven 

 from cover. 



Anything from a lion to a hare is apt to burst 

 into view without a second's warning. Guinea- 

 fowls, spur-fowls, and other species of game- 

 birds rise above the brush and seek shelter 

 farther on. The true big-game hunter always 

 carries his heavy rifle and orders his men to pay 

 no attention to birds or small mammals; but we 



