CHAP. i. BUFFALO. 11 



bullet." Wounded game undoubtedly expects to be fol- 

 lowed, and in such cover as this has the advantage of 

 being motionless, and ready to detect the faintest sound 

 that will give it a clue to its enemy's whereabouts, and 

 will enable it to expect his appearance in a given direc- 

 tion, and while the hunter advances blindly it will remain 

 quiet, patiently listening to every step, until it either sees 

 him or the shaking reeds point out his exact position, 

 when it suddenly and unexpectedly charges, and, as the 

 numerous accidents prove, too often successfully. In more 

 open cover it is generally possible to make a circuit, and 

 approach the animal from a direction contrary to that from 

 which it came ; but it is impossible to do so in the reeds, 

 for the spoor once left, the chances are very faint of your 

 ever finding the animal again, and therefore you are forced 

 to follow its trail wherever it goes until you find it, and 

 in this lies a great part of the danger. 



The buffalo had in this case made use of a track by 

 which the game went down to water, and when near the 

 river had turned into another narrow path which ran 

 parallel to it, thereby enabling me to proceed much faster 

 and with less chance of being heard than if he had forced 

 a path for himself, more particularly as the reeds were in 

 many places unusually thick, probably not having been 

 burned for a long time, and so overhung the path that it 

 was absolutely dark, and like going through a tunnel. 

 After having been an hour inside, during which time I 

 had not accomplished over two or three hundred yards, I 

 came to a mud-hole straight across the track. I had 

 already passed several of these places, which are hollows 

 which the river on every inundation fills with soft mud 



