58 STALKING BUFFALOES. 



juugle, running straight into the patch of long grass 

 he had onlv left a few minutes before. On taking 

 up his tracks, I had little difficulty in following thera, 

 as he bled profusely. Some ten minutes' walk 

 brought me out of this grass into another place, 

 where it had been burned, and crossing this the 

 tracking became less easy. However, I was not des- 

 tined to follow him far across it, for when I had gone 

 about two hundred yards, I saw a herd of about 

 thirty buffaloes standing round a large tree in the 

 grass. No doubt they had been sleeping under its 

 shade all day, and had only just risen. Leaving 

 the tracks of the water-buck, I proceeded to stalk the 

 buffaloes. When 1 had reached within about sixty 

 yards of them, a shot (which was fired some distance 

 off, as it afterwards turned out, by a Makololo, also in 

 search of grub) alarmed the herd, and they were 

 soon in flight. I then took a shot at the nearest as 

 they passed, and luckily hit it in the spine, about the 

 middle of the back, which caused it to fall on the 

 spot. As I passed it, to follow up the herd, I gave 

 it a finishing stroke behind the ear. It turned out to 

 be a cow. I then continued tlie chase. 



The buffaloes, having gone about three hundred 

 yards, began to slacken their speed, and I was gain- 

 ing on them fast, when they pulled up and turned 

 round, packing themselves closely together, as they 

 always do when danger is near. I now saw a fine 

 bull in the midst of the group, and determined to 

 have him. As he was, there was no chance of a shot, 

 for his body was protected completely by the way he 

 was wedged in with the rest; and as he held his 



