Mpika to Kopas 



were perforce obliged to halt until such time as our 

 new supply reached us. As this was quite indefinite, 

 we made ourselves as comfortable as circumstances 

 would permit. An arbour was constructed, roofed 

 with thick green boughs, in which to lunch and sit 

 during the heat of the day. Some of the trees in 

 the higher altitudes were beginning to come out. 



A started off early in search of game, but 



saw none. After a long and uninteresting tramp he 

 and his men were returning wearily homewards 

 about 9 A.M., when suddenly they struck the fresh 

 spoor of a solitary bull eland, who had evidently 

 only recently crossed the dambo in which they were 

 walking. They immediately followed the spoor into 

 the forest, but like a will-o'-the-wisp it led them on 

 and on. The beast kept moving quietly along 

 ahead of them. Once or twice he lay down, as 

 marks on the ground testified; but, warned no 

 doubt by the inevitable crackling of the dry leaves 

 and branches with which the ground was thickly 

 covered, got up before they could get a clear view 

 of him and again moved on — all this in a dry acacia 

 forest of small trees and scrub in which it is im- 

 possible to see more than fifty yards ahead, with a 

 scorching sun beating down between the trees. At 



noon, A 's patience being exhausted, they again 



turned homewards. The driest season of the year 

 in these forests is not the best time to choose for 

 tracking eland. 



Forest covers more or less the whole face of the 

 country through which we passed. It lacks the 

 stately appearance of the North of Europe forests, 



167 



