248 SOUTH AFRICA. 



Next morning, numerous fresh " spoors " of 

 buffalo were visible near our night quarters, and 

 soon we viewed such numbers of the game we 

 were in quest of, scattered in groups all over the 

 country within the range of vision, that the Kaffirs' 

 reports were amply verified. 



Leaving my companion to choose his own 

 course, I went on in the opposite direction, and 

 before noon had killed nine buffaloes, and returned 

 alone to the bivouac to recruit, leaving Kaffirs at 

 each carcase to skin and cut the meat into 

 portable shape. 



I met with no adventures of a dangerous nature 

 during this hunt, probably because of the absence 

 of any thick cover. In a jungly country buffaloes 

 are the most dangerous of all African game, as 

 in such situations wounded animals have a habit 

 of concealing themselves and of pouncing out upon 

 any one they catch a glimpse of with extraordinary 

 rapidity, and unless a suitable tree is at hand to 

 climb into, the man is nearly certain to come to 

 grief even if well armed, as a front shot at a 

 charging buffalo, owing to the peculiar position 

 the head is then held in, is rarely effective, although 

 it sometimes turns the enraged brute out of his 



