SPORT IN ABYSSINIA. 149 



walk, but, to my astonishment, the hills opened and I 

 saw in front of me a large plain — this was the plain of 

 Coom-Coom-Dema. H. had pitched the tents, and 

 everything- was ready and comfortable. Just after we 

 had lunched, one of the servants said that he could 

 see on the plain some large deer, which he called 

 to7'a ; they were in reality hartebeest. They were 

 going down to drink from the pool where we got 

 our water, but directly they saw us they trotted off. 

 Some gazelles got up as we were walking along, and 

 I fired and missed, so did H. There were tracks 

 of buffalo all about our camp, but they were very 

 old, having been made during the rains. Barrakee, 

 who had undertaken the sporting arrangements of 

 the party, said this was a very good place for game, 

 but we determined not to stop here, but to press on 

 to the Tackazzee, the goal of my ambition. 



Feb. 8. — -This morning we were almost awakened by 

 the noise the little sand-grouse made in circling round 

 and round our tents. I got up and brought down two 

 brace of them, as they wheeled round attempting to 

 settle on some ground close to our camp. It was 

 rather pretty shooting, as the birds came very fast, and 

 I only wished that I could have had some more of it, 

 but the rest of the pack soon got frightened and went 

 away. After this we packed up our traps and left 

 Coom-Coom-Dema. On the road, Barrakee, who was 



