" HUNTING " rsftSUS " SHOOTING. 73 



the interest of searching for them. There was a herd of buffalo, some elephant, and 

 a few rhino which used to roam in an uninhabited part of that country, and it is to be 

 hoped that they do so still. There were no villages or natives for a distance of two 

 or three days' journey in any direction. 



I will treat of the area hunted over as about forty miles long by thirty miles 

 broad, and on Map i is shown the country as known to me before visiting it. 



The names given thereon are fictitious, and I have made an alteration in 

 compass points, for convenience. 



On the first day I arrived in this area I came the same evening to a little grassy 

 flat, beside which was a small watercourse. This watercourse contained two muddy 

 pools of water growing small beds of reeds. Round this spot tracks of buffalo were 

 plentiful, the age of which I estimated at three days. 



The tracks about the water and grassy flat were confused and tortuous, as the 

 animals had been grazing there. On searching a little farther, however, it was 

 apparent that they were grazing towards the south, as once the grassy flat was 

 left behind the tracks did not wind about so much. As the country made a gradual 

 descent in the direction in which the animals were going I presumed that there was 

 probably a river in that direction. For in these parts buffalo seldom wander very far 

 from some big stream or river, as they like to drink its clearer water during the night. 



That night I camped there. My knowledge of the country, as I made my plans 

 for the morrow, is shown on my second map. 



On the next day I followed the tracks and came to a river with steep and rocky 

 banks, wooded on either side. As the season was the end of the dry weather this 

 stream was no longer running, but in its rocky bed were a series of pools of clear 

 water, some of which were several hundred yards in length ; so it followed that when 

 the animals were in this neighbourhood some spot in this series of pools was then 

 their night's drinking-place. A brief inspection served to show that they had drunk 

 two nights before not far from where I had struck the river. After selecting a site 

 for camp I sent a man back to bring on the porters, while I followed the tracks still 

 farther. These ascended the opposite bank and then took me up a gradual rise to 

 the south-west for some six or eight miles, till I came to a water-hole in this higher 

 ground, and there also discovered some old spoor of elephant. 



The buffalo had evidently spent the day in the vicinity of the water-hole, and 

 towards the evening made their way eastwards. I surmised that they had returned 

 to the river to drink the night before, and that they had hit off the river below my 

 camp, drunk there, and were spending this day at some other water-hole, but on 

 which side of the river that might be or in what direction I could not guess. 



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