LARGE GAME. CHAP. n. 



and roll, and go away again ; the white species to feed on 

 the rich grass, often within a few yards of where I lay 

 concealed, waiting for buffalo, and the others to seek their 

 food among the dense ukaku thickets ; while great herds 

 of gnu and zebra, with perhaps a sprinkling of eland, stood 

 three or four hundred yards off and watched them, fearful 

 of approaching nearer so long as the wind, blowing from 

 them to the water, put it out of their power to decide 

 whether there was danger in so doing ; and there they 

 have stood almost motionless, too thirsty to graze, till near 

 midnight, looking weird enough in the calm moonlight, till, 

 their thirst conquering their prudence, they would come 

 forward, halting every fifty yards, and even sometimes 

 wheeling away in a panic that had originated with the 

 gnu, till at last, as the foremost entered the water, those 

 behind would quicken their pace, and jostling forward, the 

 whole pool would be covered with them, the gurgling 

 sound from hundreds of thirsty throats sounding strange 

 in the stillness ; then, unless despairing of buffalo I fired 

 at them, the whole herd would retire, and, when the grass 

 was good, feed all round me for hours, fresh troops occa- 

 sionally arriving to quench their thirst, and sometimes the 

 same returning a second time before going off to the great 

 flats where they would spend the day. 



Watching water-holes was always a very favourite 

 mode of passing the night with me, especially during the 

 warm spring evenings (for it is often chilly after the sun 

 has set during winter), when there was sufficient moon 

 to enable me to see. Many annuals that one rarely comes 

 across in the day-time, such as wild dogs, hyenas, leo- 

 pards, panthers, jackals, and wild cats of many kinds, 



