30 LARGE GAME. CHAP. i. 



it, is formed of a species of thorn-tree armed with myriads 

 of tiny curved thorns, every one of which curves in a dif- 

 ferent direction, and which, growing very close together, 

 seldom much exceeds seven or eight feet in height. Pro- 

 gress through it, even to the naked savage, is a matter of 

 no small difficulty, while to the European, except at the 

 expense of having his clothes torn off his back, it is almost 

 an impossibility, unless he be, as I was, clad entirely in 

 soft, close-fitting leather, which, however, is so dreadfully 

 hot as to be all but un wearable. On entering it we found 

 that the herd had separated, and I followed the larger 

 spoor with one hunter, while Umdumela took the other. 

 The portion I went after had merely made a detour, and 

 on reaching the spot where they had joined the rest I saw 

 that Umdumela had already passed, and in a few minutes 

 I heard him fire, and then the angry grunt of a charging 

 buffalo. Hurrying up, we found him standing over the 

 carcase of a three-parts-grown bull which he had shot, 

 and in a state of considerable excitement and anger at 

 having been viciously charged by one that he had not 

 meddled with, and which he had barely managed to escape 

 by dodging among the bushes. He said that it was a 

 cow, and as I remembered having seen the track of a 

 young calf when we were following them, I suggested 

 that it was probably its mother, and after a careful search 

 we hit off the young one's spoor and soon had it safely 

 secured; and as I thought it seemed old enough to do 

 without the maternal milk, and wished to get some to 

 take out to the colonies with me, I sent my gun-bearer 

 away with it to camp, before following up the herd. This 

 we had to do for some hours, as they had been shot at a 



