With Flashlight and Rifle * 



A frugal supper, which tastes very good after all 

 the exertions of the day, is prepared from the flesh of 

 the eland roasted on the spit ; and refreshing- sleep 

 soon embraces myself and the men who are not keeping 

 watch. Up here, in the pure air of the mountain-forest 

 very different from that of my camp on the fever-breeding 

 velt one sleeps doubly well. But not less than three 

 times in the night we are all awakened suddenly by the 

 snorting of rhinoceroses in our proximity. We spring 

 up, and a long time elapses before the angry pachyderms 

 disappear, still uttering snorts that echo hideously through 

 the torest. 



The next morning sees me returning to the camp by 

 a different path. This time we climb down to the valley 

 by the southern declivities of the mountain-chain. Rock- 

 badgers and klipspringers are visible, also two huge herds 

 of baboons ; and now that I have no longer any desire 

 to shoot antelope, the birds afford rne many a fine specimen 

 for my collection. Gorgeously coloured turacos, in par- 

 ticular, scuffling in the foliage, are soon added to my spoils. 



When, half-way to a rocky plateau, I halt and investi- 

 gate the desert below me with a Goerz-Trialder glass, 

 I perceive numerous little dots, which prove to be large 

 herds of wild animals. When we come some hundred 

 yards nearer to the foot of the mountain, great crowds of 

 gnus, zebras, and impalla antelopes come out for the 

 midday drink, and allow me, now that I am not hunting 

 them, to pass within a few hundred paces. 



More than once I have made incursions into the 

 higher regions of the Donje-Erok la Matumbato, but 



622 



