AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



distressing jungle. However, we had several small 

 adventures with them; just enough to keep us alert in 

 rounding corners, or approaching bushes — and nine 

 tenths of our travel was bushes and corners. The big 

 flat footsteps, absohitely fresh in the dust, padded 

 methodically ahead of us down the only way until it 

 seemed that we could not fail to plump upon their 

 maker around the next bend. We crept forward foot 

 by foot, every sense alert, finger on trigger. Then 

 after a time the spoor turned off to the right, toward 

 the hills. We straightened our backs and breathed 

 a sigh of relief. This happened over and over again. 



At certain times of year also elephants frequent the 

 banks of the Tsavo in considerable numbers. We saw 

 many old signs; and once came upon the fresh path 

 of a small herd. The great beasts had passed by that 

 very morning. We gazed with considerable awe on 

 limbs snatched bodily from trees; on flat-topped aca- 

 cias a foot in diameter pulled up by the roots and 

 stood upside down; on tree trunks twisted like ropes. 



Of the game by far the most abundant were the 

 beautiful red impalla. We caught glimpses of their 

 graceful bodies gliding in and out of sight through 

 the bushes; or came upon them standing in small 

 openings, their delicate ears pointed to us. They 

 and the tiny dik-dik furnished our table; and an 

 occasional waterbuck satisfied the men. One day 



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