12 SPORT IN ABYSSINIA. 



This put one barrel hors de combat ; thus the reader 

 will see that my first attempt at African sport was 

 not a success. 



One of the natives then volunteered to show us 

 some bigger deer. We went on through a sandy, 

 rocky valley in which mimosa-bushes were dotted 

 about. H. agreed to go to the ground to the 

 right and I to the left, so as to work it over tho- 

 roughly. The boy who was with me said he saw some 

 deer on the ridge of the high hill at the foot of which 

 I was ; I went up the hill, and sent him round the other 

 way. On coming to the top I saw the deer feeding and 

 wagging their tails just below me, but they were too 

 far off for the rifle I had. I longed for my Express, 

 which, at that time, was on its way to Pointe de Galle 

 in Ceylon, instead of being with me ! The deer 

 caught sight of me and trotted away. I sent back 

 the boy for H., as he had his Express with him ; 

 when he joined me we tried to get at them again, 

 but failed. We saw another dik-dik, and then started 

 for home, in a temperature that was very hot indeed. 



We w^ere back in camp late in the afternoon, and, 

 having had something to eat, I determined to take my 

 rifle on board the Dessook, to ask the engineer, who 

 was an Englishman, to extract the bullet. Arrekel 

 Bey, the Governor, sent a boat round to our camp, 

 and the men rowed us out to the ship, singing, as 



