break back for cover at the slightest alarm; but 

 generally fed inside the fringe of bushes. Once from 

 the bluff above I saw a beautiful herd of over a hun- 

 dred pacing decorously along the river bottom be- 

 low me, single file, the oldest buck at the head, and 

 the miscellaneous small buck bringing up the rear 

 after the does. I shouted at them. Immediately 

 the solemn procession broke. They began to leap, 

 springing straight up into the air as though from a 

 released spring, or diving forward and upward in 

 long graceful bounds like dolphins at sea. These 

 leaps were incredible. Several even jumped quite 

 over the backs of others; and all without a semblance 

 of effort. 



Along the fringe of the river, too, dwelt the lordly 

 waterbuck, magnificent and proud as the stags of 

 Landseer; and the tiny steinbuck and duiker, no 

 bigger than jack-rabbits, but perfect little deer for 

 all that. The incredibly plebeian wart-hog rooted 

 about; and down in the bottom lands were leopards. 

 I knocked one off a rock one day. In the river itself 

 dwelt hippopotamuses and crocodiles. One of the 

 latter dragged under a yearling calf just below 

 the house itself, and while we were there. Besides 

 these were of course such affairs as hyenas and 

 jackals, and great numbers of small game: hares, 

 ducks, three kinds of grouse, guinea fowl, pigeons, 



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