82 HUNTING TRIPS IN NORTHERN RHODESIA. 



These are the best resthouses in the country, being large and very clean. I met 

 a friend, Mr. Greer, here, who has a cotton plantation, and he asked me to go up to 

 his place, about a mile off, which I did. 



Leaving early next morning, I got to Chicongwe's village on the Lopandi river, 

 seeing fresh spoor of three elephants within four hundred yards of the village. On 

 getting there, the natives told me they had seen the elephants cross the dry river bed 

 about an hour before I came. It was mid-day, and I thought it a strange time for 

 elephants to be trekking; but I started after them at once and kept it up until about 

 4 p.m., when I was getting into very dry country and I saw that the elephants were 

 still going hard in single file. A man whom I had engaged at Msoro ran away, as he 

 thought I intended sleeping on the spoor without water, which I would likely have 

 done if he had not bolted, for he was the only one of the party who knew the country 

 we were in, and the likely places for water ahead. I got back to the village long 

 after dark, very tired indeed, as I had been on my legs since dawn, walking hard the 

 whole time through very rough country. A bad thunderstorm came up after I got 

 to camp, and the rain came down in sheets, which made things very unpleasant. 

 However, the rains do not set in properly for another month, and this rain helped to 

 cool the atmosphere, which had lately been like a blast from a furnace. 



Yesterday's work made me feverish, but I went on, crossing the Lopandi river 

 many times during the day's march. Among other villages, I passed Tindi's, and he 

 was one of the tallest natives I have seen. He said there were elephants near, but I 

 wanted to get to the Luangwa, so pushed on and camped at a village headman's 

 named Cowalika. As the zebra meat was finished I went out and found a herd of 

 eland just as darkness was coming on. 



I took the nearest and wounded it so badly that it could not go off with the herd, 

 and finished it with another bullet. 



As the herd went ofi I saw a cow with the finest pair of horns I have ever seen, 

 but she was soon out of sight, and it was too dark to follow. This herd consisted of 

 quite fifty animals. We reached camp about 8 p.m. by moonlight, very tired and 

 thirsty, as we had come a long march in the morning, besides the afternoon tramp and 

 return to the camp in semi-darkness. It is very hard work walking in rough country 

 by moonlight, for one cannot see holes and stumps, and the shadows are always 

 deceptive. To give the men a rest I stayed at this village the following day. I 

 wished to half cook and dry the meat and if possible get more, to save firing at buck 

 when I got to the elephant country. I therefore went out shooting again and got a 

 fine cow roan, which, strange to say, had a broken horn. On my trip to the Rukusi I 

 shot a female roan with the same disfigurement. 



