DOWN THE RIVER 



we came on one of the latter beasts sound asleep 

 in a tiny open space. He was lying down, and his 

 nose rested against the earth, just like a very old 

 family horse in a paddock. 



Beside these common species were bush buck, 

 warthog, lesser kudu, giraffe, and leopard. The bush 

 buck we jumped occasionally quite near at hand. They 

 ducked their heads low and rushed tearingly to the 

 next cover. The leopard we heard sighing every 

 night, and saw their pad marks next day; but only 

 twice did we catch glimpses of them. One morning we 

 came upon the fresh killed carcass of a female lesser 

 kudu from which, evidently, we had driven the slayer. 



These few species practically completed the game 

 list. They were sufficient for our needs; and the 

 lesser kudu was a prize much desired for our collec- 

 tion. But by far the most interesting to me were 

 the smaller animals, the birds, and the strange, in- 

 numerable insects. 



We saw no natives in the whole course of our 

 journey. 



The valley of the river harboured many monkeys. 

 They seemed to be of two species, blue and brown, 

 but were equally noisy and amusing. They retired 

 ahead of our advance with many remarks, or slipped 

 past us to the rear without any comments whatever. 

 When we made camp they retired with indignant 



221 



