3 1 6 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



through the centre of which ran a tiny watercourse, 

 with little or no water in it, and but few pebbles or 

 stones, so we moved along it almost noiselessly. The 

 deer scampering away at dawn must have disturbed 

 the forest, for we saw nothing up to twelve o'clock. 

 We then ate something, had a tot of grog, and smoked 

 placidly till past three, we then took a south-easterly 

 course, there the forest was more open, with patches 

 of long grass here and there, and every now and then 

 some deer would sneak away. Suddenly the man 

 stooped down, and with his hand bade me do like- 

 wise. Directly I saw his movement I had done so 

 too ; we remained immovable as statues for several 

 minutes, then the shikarie glided forward and I 

 followed ; every now and then the man would lie 

 down flat, and I of course did the same. In about a 

 quarter of an hour, which appeared to me an age, he 

 pointed, and looking in that direction I saw three in- 

 distinct forms about a hundred yards off. They 

 had not seen us ; they gazed at nothing, flapping the 

 flies off with their tails. Looking more intently I 

 saw that they were elands, probably a buck and either 

 two does, or a doe and a youngster half-grown. 

 They were amongst a lot of saplings, and the great 

 danger was that the bullet might be deflected by one 

 of them, for the trees were very close together. I 

 sat up, and being perfectly concealed, remained 

 examining the beasts, wondering which was the male, 

 for I could not distinguish more than a bit of the 

 head of one at a time, as they tossed them about. 

 Natives of India would have urged me to shoot, they 

 think a gun can do anything, but the African never 

 moved a muscle, and crouching down, lay perfectly 



