THE EAHAD RIVER 199 



The buck got up and went off in the first thick bit of 

 bush, giving me a snapshot only, when I missed again. 

 My three shikaris then did some very creditable 

 tracking, for although the blood continued, the black 

 cotton-soil gave little spoor. We jumped him twice 

 at 20 yards in thick bush without getting a chance of 

 a shot. Finally, I went on ahead on one flank of the 

 trackers, the result of which was that when he went 

 off for the third time I got a fair chance across an 

 open space, and killed him at 30 yards with a bullet 

 through the neck. He turned out to be a very good 

 buck of 13 inches, standing 32 inches and weighing 

 97 Ib. The first shot had gone through the lower part 

 of his stomach far back, and torn the soft part of the 

 further thigh all to pieces, the extensive laceration 

 accounting for the considerable flow of blood. Re- 

 turning to camp I sent off a camel for the reedbuck, 

 and found that S. had arrived with the dourra. When 

 the reedbuck arrived, two Arabs came in also, with the 

 fore-quarters of an ariel which they said had been 

 killed by a lion. I suspected a leopard, but gave them 

 a dollar apiece to show me the place, and exchanged 

 the meat for a corresponding portion of reedbuck. 

 After breakfast they took me and the camel with the 

 materials for the machan pretty nearly to the place 

 where I had followed the wounded reedbuck, but 

 further up the right bank of the Rahad. There at the 

 edge of the fringe of nabbuk along the Rahad, here 



