FIRST YEARS IN SOUTH AFRICA. 29 



which then swarmed on its banks, and made the 

 acquaintance of Gordon Cummings, Dr. Living- 

 stone, and Mr. Oswell. 



Cummings did not strike me as a man with 

 whom any one would care to become intimate. 

 He was a mighty hunter, and although the book 

 he wrote was supposed by critics to contain a good 

 many " unveracities," I don't think such was the 

 case ; none of his performances in the hunting-field 

 amounted to much more than usually fell to the 

 lot of most sporting wanderers in the same 

 localities. As an elephant hunter he was certainly 

 not A I, as any one may gather from his own 

 accounts of the number of shots he usually fired 

 before bringing his quarry to the ground. In fact, 

 when in pursuit of very large game he was handi- 

 capped by his weight in the saddle and by his 

 habit of using a rifle, that weapon in those days 

 being a very inferior arm to a smooth bore, as 

 it could not be used with a sufficient charge 

 of powder to ensure the necessary amount of 

 penetration. 



Oswell, on the contrary, was a very light weight, 

 a splendid horseman, always well mounted, and 

 invariably shot with a smooth ic-bore, which in 



