THE SETTIT RIVEE 179 



20 yards short of this bank. Sure enough, I had 

 only just started when there was a loud sniff, and 

 out rushed a large hartebeest from behind a bush. 

 I gave him the right barrel at 60 yards as he 

 ran, and the left at 80 as he stopped, but was 

 practically sure that I had missed clean both times, 

 and, glancing at my rifle, saw that it was still sighted 

 to 200 yards. I reloaded and pushed down the sight, 

 having noticed that the hartebeest had stopped 

 behind a thick clump of bush. I approached quietly, 

 but rapidly, and through a convenient gap could just 

 make out his body at 50 yards. I fired, and he 

 went off with a very different sort of rush to his 

 previous canter, and presently lurched into a thorn- 

 bush and fell, shot just behind the shoulder. He was 

 a good bull, of 18 inches, and I had better luck in 

 bagging him than I deserved. M. came up ten minutes 

 after the last kick and proceeded to halal him. In the 

 afternoon I recharged the electric battery, and erected 

 a machan in the same place as before. A lion had 

 roared there freely at 2 o'clock, and his tracks up and 

 down the meshra were still visible. In fact, I had tried 

 to tempt him with the carcase of a goat which had 

 died, but he had refused to go anywhere near the 

 fatal spot, being very likely the one wounded here 

 before. I took cold dinner to the machan for an 

 all-night sitting. 

 March 5th. Spent a fruitless night in the machan, 



