A BUFFALO-HUNT BY THE KAMITI 141 



toward them, when one of them made us out, and several 

 rose from their beds. They were still at least two hundred 

 yards off a long range for heavy rifles; but any closer 

 approach was impossible, and we fired. Both the leading 

 bulls were hit, and at the shots there rose from the grass not 

 half a dozen buffalo, but seventy or eighty, and started at a 

 gallop parallel to the swamp and across our front. In the 

 rear were a number of cows and calves, and I at once sin- 

 gled out a cow and fired. She plunged forward at the shot 

 and turned toward the swamp, going slowly and dead lame, 

 for my bullet had struck the shoulder and had gone into the 

 cavity of the chest. But at this moment our attention was 

 distracted from the wounded cow by the conduct of the 

 herd, which, headed by the wounded bulls, turned in a 

 quarter-circle toward us, and drew up in a phalanx facing 

 us with outstretched heads. It was not a nice country in 

 which to be charged by the herd, and for a moment things 

 trembled in the balance. There was a perceptible motion 

 of uneasiness among some of our followers. "Stand steady! 

 Don't run!" I called out. "And don't shoot!" called out 

 Cuninghame; for to do either would invite a charge. A few 

 seconds passed, and then the unwounded mass of the herd 

 resumed their flight, and after a little hesitation the wounded 

 bulls followed. We now turned our attention to the wounded 

 cow, which was close to the papyrus. She went down to 

 our shots, but the reeds and marsh-grass were above our 

 heads when we drew close to the swamp. Once again 

 Heatley went in with his white horse, as close as it was even 

 reasonably safe, with the hope either of seeing the cow, 

 or of getting her to charge him and so give us a fair chance 

 at her. But nothing happened and we loosed the two dogs. 



