42 DAYS AND NIGHTS BY THE DESERT. 



to prospect the country, and so learn what game 

 was to be expected to fall to our rifles during our 

 sojourn in this neighbourhood. But I was disap- 

 pointed in my expectations ; for, although I saw 

 several gemsbok, and a couple of blue vildebeeste 

 in the society of a hartebeest, they were so wild 

 that I could not get near them. This I can only 

 account for by the belief that they had lately 

 been hunted by Boers, roving bands of whom 

 were reported to be in the neighbourhood. As I 

 had no desire to come across these freebooters, 

 and much less anxious that they should find my 

 waggons when I was absent from them, I returned to 

 camp early. Chummy came in soon after with the 

 tit-bits of a hartebeest, which he had killed some 

 miles off; so the bush people were sent off to bring 

 back what meat they could. Little, I may say, we 

 expected to see of it, for they were accompanied by 

 none of our servants, and we had resolved trecking 

 as soon as the moon rose. 



The vley, on the margin of which we had out- 

 spanned, was a charming spot, had all the appear- 

 ance of being permanent, and must, at one time, 

 have been a perfect hunter's elysium. In several 

 places the trees grew at the water's edge, the termi- 

 nation of their limbs in many instances drooping 

 down within a few feet of its placid surface. When 

 this is the case, you will invariably find a pear- 

 shaped weaver-bird's (baiya) nest suspended from 



