130 FIND BUFFALOES. 



was a scarecrow in one corner, wliicli presented a rather ridiculous appear- 

 ance, as the buffaloes had grazed the crop quite short, except under its 

 outstretched arm and about its feet. It was thus left guarding, with 

 an appearance of great solicitude, about fifty stalks ! The men carried the 

 tracks from here in good style through jungle composed of bushes much 

 like hazel, interspersed with fine trees ; beds of a peculiar broad-leaved 

 plant ; and occasional swamps and long grass. The buffaloes — apparently 

 eight or ten — had wallowed in a pool, and for some distance beyond the 

 grass and bushes were whitewashed with mud from their brushing against 

 them. When we had gone about three miles we found a pool only recently 

 disturbed, and I dismounted, as from sundry signs similar to those I well 

 knew in bison-shooting — such as the animals loitering and wandermsr, and 

 more particularly (as the compass attached to my watch-chain informed me) 

 from their having turned back towards the fields they had grazed, doubtless 

 with the intention of visiting them again that night — I imagined they were 

 not far ahead. 



We were entering some thick cover when up they jumped, close on our 

 right, and crashed away. I did not catch sight of them, but ran along the 

 path they made through the grass and bushes. One — the bull no doubt — 

 kept lagging behind, and breaking away again and again just before me; but 

 the undergrowth was very rank, and though I ran nearly a mile I never saw 

 him. I waited for my followers, and we resorted to tracking again. The 

 men kept the trail very well for two miles, when we came to a serious 

 check, caused by the buffaloes having met some charcoal-burners, at sight 

 of whom they had scattered in all directions ; and as the ground was not 

 sufficiently soft to render the old bull's tracks very discernible from the 

 others, whilst the locality had been recently much trampled, the finding the 

 newest tracks, and picking out the bull's amongst them, occupied time. 

 The men made many gestures signifying that the buffaloes must be far 

 ahead, that we should not catch them up before sundown, and pointing 

 to the position of the sun about seven in the morning, with much nodding 

 and grunting in an assuring manner, by which I understood them to say 

 we should make certain work of them in the morning. But I have so 

 constantly found that when matters look least promising success is often 

 close at hand, that T would not hear of giving in, and encouraged them to 

 persevere by the well-understood pantomime of tapping the palm of the 

 upturned left hand with the fingers of the right held in a suggestive manner 

 together, as if passing coin into tlie said upturned hand. They grinned in 

 an appreciative manner at this, and girt up tlieir loins afresh, and by making 

 a long cast we hit off the trail again. I saw my only chance was to ride 



