202 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



The night-shooting being at an end, on the 23cl 1 

 retraced my steps to the dead elephants, to assist Ca- 

 rey in superintending the cutting out of the ivory, and 

 in escorting the same along with our supply of fat and 

 flesh to the wagons. Early in the afternoon we had 

 got all ready for a start. The Bechuana captains who 

 were there, and had appropriated my elephants and 

 rhinoceroses, and nearly all the fat, then brought up 

 about fifty men, who shouldered my impedimenta, and 

 we marched for camp. Carey went in front, I rode in 

 the middle, and my after-riders brought up the rear. 

 This long line of naked savages thridding the mazes of 

 the forest, and bearing home the spoils of a few days' 

 hunting, formed a truly interesting and unusual pic- 

 ture. Every man that was there carried something of 

 mine : some led the dogs, some carried the guns and 

 extra ammunition, some cooking vessels, axes, sickles, 

 water-calabashes, provisions, rhinoceroses' horns, the 

 elephant's teeth, and an immense supply of flesh and 

 fat, &c., &c. We made the Limpopo as the sun went 

 down, which we crossed all right, and brought every 

 thing safe to camp. I made other excursions from this 

 encampment in quest of elephants, in which I was very 

 successful ; but, as they did not differ in their details 

 from the many already described, I shall not run the 

 risk of wearying my reader with an account of them. 



On the 30th one of those minor accidents occurred 

 which the hunter in these parts must be prepared con- 

 tinually to encounter. As I awoke that morning, I 

 heard a scream which denoted that " Prince," a most 

 worthless dog, was consumed by a crocodile. There 

 were several of these terrible animals frequenting the 

 still deep stream beside which we lay. They seemed 

 ever to be on the look-out for prey, and I have not the 



