I58 THROUGH GASA LAND. 



difficulty that we shall have to contend with, and we 

 have now more impedimenta than we at present 

 exactly know how to deal with, it would have been 

 barbarous to make a collection of skins, taken from 

 the innumerable rare swimming and wading birds 

 that surrounded me, as inevitably I should have to 

 leave it behind, so I turned away with a sigh of 

 regret, from the most extraordinary aquatic aviary 

 that I am ever again likely to visit. 



On leaving the lagoon we struck a rhinoceros trail 

 leading to the southward; it had lately been traversed 

 by two of these animals — an old and a young 

 one. It soon took us into the open veldt country ; 

 but, although the spoor was fresh, not a sight 

 could be obtained of the game, and this when the 

 human eye could well have distinguished such large 

 objects quite a mile distant. It was quite possible 

 that the beasts had lain down in some indentation 

 or hollow in the surface of the plain, so it behoved 

 us to be careful that we did not, too suddenly and 

 unprepared, come upon such irascible animals. Our 

 tramp in pursuit was not very far. One of the 

 Zulus led the way upon the spoor, next followed 

 Sunday carrying my rifle, close on whose heels I 

 trod, when our foremost man stopped, squatted, 

 mumbled something in his own language, which 

 my henchman translated into the information that 

 the game consisted of a cow and a calf, and that 

 they were just over the swell of the land in front, 



