340 THE ELEPHANT. 



furnished with well-trained hunters, and thus has 

 at command the easiest and surest means of en- 

 joying his gun without the fatigues attendant on 

 night-watching. During my peregrinations, how- 

 ever, in South Africa, I have seen something of 

 every sort of sport whether at night, by the side 

 of the water, or the " salt-lick," or by day 

 on foot, or on horseback, and I must conscien- 

 tiously declare that, in my opinion, a moonlight am- 

 bush by a pool frequented by numerous wild animals 

 is worth all the other modes of enjoying a gun put 

 together. In the first place, there is something 

 mysterious and thrilling in finding oneself the secret 

 and unsuspected spectator of the wild movements, 

 habits, and propensities of the denizens of nature's 

 varied and wonderful menagerie ; no hi^h feeding, 



O * o i 1 ' 



no prison-bars, no harsh and cruel keeper's voice 

 having yet enervated, damped, or destroyed the 

 elasticity, buoyancy, and frolicsomeness of animal life. 

 Then the intense excitement between each ex- 

 pected arrival ; the distant footfall, now heard 

 distinctly rattling over a rugged surface, now gently 

 vibrating on the strained ear, as it treads over softer 

 ground it may be that of a small antelope or an 

 elephant, of a wild boar or a rhinoceros, of a gnu 

 or a giraffe, of a jackal or a lion. And what 

 opportunities present themselves of observing the 

 habits and peculiarities of each species, and even of 

 individuals, to say nothing of the terrible battles 

 ihat sometimes take place between animals wlien 

 thus congregated, and which can so rarely be wit- 

 nessed in the day-time. I have certainly learnt 



