OUR FIRST HUNTING EXPEDITION 



were up and away and found it hard going, wet and 

 swampy. We crossed several rhino tracks, and pre- 

 sently saw a cock and four hen ostriches. My hus- 

 band gave chase for a couple of hours, and I watched 

 him from a hill through my glasses, going miles in 

 a large circle after them, only they out-distanced 

 him and got away, their long strong legs covering 

 the ground without any trouble. By that time we 

 had reached the foot of the hills, and as our next 

 camping ground was farther along we marched up 

 and down the undulations, struggling up the swampy 

 side of one and down to a stream which ran fresh 

 and sparkling from the mountains above. As the 

 crow flies it was not far, but having to keep climb- 

 ing up and down and crossing the streams took so 

 long a time that I began to despair of ever being 

 allowed to halt. Suddenly we struck the perfectly 

 fresh tracks of a rhino, in fact there must have been 

 two, as in the open the tracks divided. In great 

 excitement, with half our fatigue gone, we followed 

 it up through a dense woody part, where if the 

 rhino had chosen to stop and wait for us some one 

 would have been done for, as there was no room to 

 spring aside ; the men might have managed it, but I 

 with my skirts and topee could not have moved. 

 However, at the time I did not think of that, I only 

 felt my loaded rifle was an extra help. The orderly 

 carried my husband's SOS and my husband the big 

 •450. We passed through a small clearing which 



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