448 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



buffalo, giraffe, and elephant; and on our way back to 

 camp in the evenings we now and then killed a roan, harte- 

 beest, or pribi. But the game we sought was the giant 

 eland, and we never fired when there was the slightest 

 chance of disturbing our quarry. They usually went in 

 herds, but there were solitary bulls. We found that they 

 drank at some pool in the Koda before dawn and then 

 travelled many miles back into the parched interior, feed- 

 ing as they went; and, after lying Up for some hours about 

 mid-day, again moved slowly off, feeding. They did not 

 graze, but fed on the green leaves, and the bean pods of the 

 tree of which I have already spoken and of another tree. 

 One of their marked habits shared in some degree by 

 their forest cousin, the bongo was breaking the higher 

 branches with their horns, to get at the leaves; they thus 

 broke branches two or three inches in diameter and seven 

 or eight feet from the ground, the crash of the branches 

 being a sound for which we continually listened as we 

 followed the tracks of a herd. They were far more wary 

 than roan, or hartebeest, or any of the other buck, and the 

 country was such that it was difficult to see more than a 

 couple of hundred yards ahead. 



It took me three hard days' work before I got my eland. 

 Each day I left camp before sunrise and on the first two I 

 came back after dark, while it always happened that at 

 noon we were on a trail and could not stop. We would 

 walk until we found tracks made that morning, and then 

 the gun-bearers and the native guide would slowly follow 

 them, hour after hour, under the burning sun. On the 

 first day we saw nothing; on the next we got a moment's 

 glimpse of an eland, trotting at the usual slashing gait; 



