6o HUNTING TRIPS IN NORTHERN RHODESIA. 



caught a number, which proved a pleasant change after perpetual meat and fowl. 

 As the tent was too hot during the midday heat, I used to get the men to put up a 

 msasa (shelter) made of branches and grass, under which I had a rest after the 

 morning march. About 4 o'clock, when the heat of the sun was beginning to 

 decrease, I would take my rifle and three or four men and go off to try to find 

 game. 



After striking the Ruio I passed many tributaries of that stream, and reached 

 water every day. Before coming to these streams I had often to carry water in my 

 bath and various cooking utensils, so as to give the men enough. One does not 

 appreciate the blessing of good water until such a dry country is gone through. I 

 can remember on my way south having had to spend a day and a night without it. 

 Hunger can be endured for some time, and does not trouble one like thirst, which 

 worries one until relieved. 



Although parts of this country are very dry and waterless during the months 

 of September, October, and November, it is seldom that the traveller has to 

 go for more than a day without water, and precautions can generally be taken 

 beforehand. Unless one has natives who know the country ahead, the information 

 of villagers as to the whereabouts of water should always be disbelieved, and 

 some carried in case of want. 



Certain pools which may hold water one season may be as dry as a bone 

 the following year ; and I know nothing so disappointing in hard travel as to 

 come to a pool, thirsty, hungry, and needing rest, and find it dry. 



The carriers under such circumstances generally sit down and say they will 

 die, and, on several occasions, I have had to literally force them to go on. 



On the 25th I passed a range of hills the natives called Sacari, and some 

 of the higher peaks were quite 4000 feet in height. Many villages are to be 

 seen near the Ruio and its tributaries, so I was able to buy eggs for salt, or 

 barter meat for them. At one village I was lucky enough to get some onions 

 and sweet potatoes. Perhaps of all the foods the traveller misses most here 

 are fresh vegetables, so when they can be procured the chance should not be 

 missed. 



I got a bushbuck on the 26th, which helped to put the men in a good 

 humour after the hot marches. 



Too much meat is as bad as too little for the natives, as they generally 

 make beasts of themselves when they get much of it. With meat they can 

 barter sweet potatoes, flour, ground nuts, etc., from the natives. At times these 

 market scenes are rather amusing, for they squabble over the merest trifles. 



