AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



We had a lively few minutes. He rushed us again 

 and again, uttering ferocious growls. We had to 

 step high and lively to keep out of his way. Be- 

 tween charges he sat down and tore savagely at his 

 wounded paw. We wanted him as nearly perfect 

 a specimen as possible, so tried to rap him over the 

 head with a club. Owing to remarkably long teeth 

 and claws, this was soon proved impracticable; so 

 we shot him. He weighed about thirty pounds; and 

 we subsequently learned that he was a honey 

 badger, an animal very rarely captured. 



We left the boys to take the whole skin and skull 

 of this beast, and strolled forward slowly. The 

 brush ended abruptly in a wide valley. It had been 

 burnt over, and the new grass was coming up green. 

 We gave one look, and sank back into cover. 



The sparse game of the immediate vicinity had 

 gathered to this fresh feed. A herd of hartebeeste 

 and gazelle were grazing; and five giraffe adorned 

 the skyline. But what interested us especially was 

 a group of about fifty cob-built animals with the 

 unmistakable rapier horns of the oryx. We recog- 

 nized them as the rarity we desired. 



The conditions were most unfavourable. The 

 cover nearest them gave a range of three hundred 

 yards; and even this would bring them directly 

 between us and the rising sun. There was no help 



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