SPORT IN MOZAMBIQUE 



softly to each other in the dewy grass, and the day 

 breaks in golden glory, lighting up the plain bathed 

 in opalescent mist. 



All these poetical sensations touch the soul of the 

 hunter and traveller, however little he may under- 

 stand African manifestations of nature, and make 

 him still more susceptible to the severe and imposing 

 beauty of the daily struggle with the lords of the forest. 

 But the reader must pardon this digression. I 

 could not resist the desire of showing, doubtless very 

 imperfectly, the fascination of Africa, which is often 

 abused by those travelling there, because the life is 

 hard and rough, but is regretted by them when they 

 leave. 



However, notwithstanding the extraordinary abun- 

 dance of game, I should not have spent more than a 

 week by the Sungwe if I had not had the satisfaction 

 of hearing and seeing so many lions. This is because 

 the hunting there is not that which I, in common 

 with other sportsmen, really love ; it is not, in fact, 

 forest-hunting. To come across, during the morning, 

 the track of an animal that has passed an hour or so 

 previously, to follow this trail, often difficult to trace, 

 on soil dried by a tropical sun, to walk behind the 

 animal for four or five hours, to approach, and at 

 length come up with it, while avoiding being winded 

 or seen, and so place one's bullet well, this is the only 

 kind of hunting that is really worth anything to the 

 South African sportsman. In the tendos, on the 



(122) 



