66 AFRICA SPEAKS 



leopards which came nightly to quench their thirst. 

 Manila became quite excited and called me over to a 

 game path where he pointed to the largest hon spoor 

 I had ever seen. If the rest of tliis Felis leo was built 

 in proportion to his feet, he would be the world's 

 largest hon I 



We were all hungry and it was time to eat lunch, 

 but as no food had been brought along, we decided 

 against it, taking a good drink of water instead. It 

 now began to cloud up, the sky darkening as distant 

 thunder warned of rain. To be lost was bad enough, 

 but to be far from the path with miles of soft earth 

 between, where every foot would be an effort in case 

 of rain, was still another thing; so we went about the 

 serious business of looking for the road, stopping only 

 once to shoot a reedbuck in case we had to dine out. 

 The sound of the shot had hardly died away when a 

 miserable hyena appeared and only our presence pre- 

 vented him from attacking the meat. He must have 

 been very hungry because he certainly was bold. How- 

 ever, this was a case where boldness didn't pay, for 

 with a carefuUy placed bullet from my Remington 30 

 he went down in the dust and into history as my 

 fourth hyena. 



I might explain that a road in this country is nothing 

 more than tracks left by a motor car, and sometimes 

 it is not an easy thing to find. After about four hours 

 of following a donga which we couldn't cross, we came 

 into an open plain which seemed a wee bit famiUar. 

 While crossing this open space we came upon three 

 large herds of eland, and a soHtary old bull gave us 

 an awful scare. As we were passing a small clump of 

 bushes, he sprang out with a mighty snort and for a 



