CHAPTER IX 
A Buffalo wounded by Lions—Hippopotamus—Guinea-fowl— 
Palm-wine—Lichtenstein Hartebeest—Vultures and Adju- 
tant Bird—Warthog—Canoe Boy Bitten by Lion—Hippo- 
potamus attacks empty Railway-trucks—Durban—Stander- 
ton—Johannesburg. 
Those hardy days flew cheerily, 
And when they now fall drearily, 
My thoughts, like swallows, skim the main 
And bear my spirit back again, 
A wild bird and a wanderer.—Byroy, 
LEFT permanent camp for three or four 
days in order to hunt farther afield. To 
this end I took only a very small cotton 
tent for Weddell and myself, just sufficient to 
keep the night dew or a shower from us. The 
place we went to was situated on the banks of 
a lagoon where Weddell said there was hippo- 
potamus. On our way I noticed a lovely white 
flower, in shape very similar to one of the 
new white clematis. It was evidently a climbing 
plant, as the flowers showed over the tops of 
some reeds, which in this place were eight feet 
high at least. I was determined to get the root 
of this flower if possible, tracing it down the 
stalk of a reed to the ground and then for a space 
of at least ten feet before I found from whence 
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