92 THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 



In the afternoon Cuninghame and I took a little 

 stroll up the wash to see if there was more water above. 

 A short distance out I downed a Bohur reedbuck at 

 80 yards (my only specimen was burned). A little 

 farther on we heard a chorus of zebra barkings, a 

 regular kalele, persistent, shrill, and numerous. Of 

 course we went to investigate the cause, supposing 

 that they must at least be harried by wild dogs. We 

 found it to be sheer exuberance! From a big water- 

 hole, up through the scrub, came a mighty procession 

 of all sorts of animals, seemingly endless, back for feed 

 after their four o'clock watering. They were biting, 

 and racing, and plodding soberly along, and kicking 

 playfully, and all lifting up their voices in sheer joy and 

 thankfulness. We stood behind a little tree and watched 

 them through our glasses with the keenest pleasure 

 until they had all passed on. Then we moved forward 

 to look at the waterhole. 



This Httle piece of country is like the Garden of the 

 Gods — ^we wind our way on firm level earth between 

 domes and monoliths. The water lay deep and cool 

 in a hollow with tall green reeds all about. And in the 

 reeds we saw a fine bull eland! 



My first shot raked him at 277 yards. I followed it 

 immediately with three others as he turned, all in the 

 shoulder. It was now near dark, and we had no men 

 with us. Cuninghame hiked to camp for men, and I 

 first built a protection fire and then set about skinning. 



