ELEPHANTS. I 3 



hence, but for the tetze fly, it would be an inex- 

 haustible grazing ground for horned cattle. 



Our camping place was the beau ideal of what 

 such an establishment should be, for we had our 

 backs against a precipitous wall of rock, and abund- 

 ance of water close at hand. As soon as the boys 

 had finished their pipes and rested for a short time, 

 they turned to with a will, and made a half-circular 

 fence around our position, that was high enough 

 and strong enough to keep at defiance any midnight 

 marauders. Moreover, from the reeds they con- 

 structed a hut for us to sleep in that was not only 

 fairly comfortable, but roomy. Game was in this 

 vicinity very abundant, all the larger kinds, includ- 

 ing giraffes, only excepting elephants, having been 

 seen within the last hour's tramp. However, this 

 grand animal's presence was made known soon after 

 supper, by the passage of a troop to some water not 

 over a quarter of a mile off. There must have been 

 upwards of a hundred in this drove, for, as they 

 generally travel on such occasions in single file, they 

 took nearly twenty minutes to pass. Their drink- 

 ing place was above us, or further up stream, for- 

 tunately, or otherwise they would have got our wind 

 and departed for new pastures, so we anticipated 

 grand sport on the morrow. 



At sunrise Sunday informed us that he had been 

 to the ford, for there is a drift over the river close 

 by, and that the elephants were feeding across it, so, 



