THROUGH THE PLEISTOCENE 31 



to the camp, and to all this plains region, lay in the ticks, 

 which swarmed, and were a scourge to man and beast. 

 Every evening the saises picked them by hundreds off 

 each horse; and some of our party were at times so bitten 

 by the noisome little creatures that they could hardly sleep 

 at night, and in one or two cases the man was actually laid 

 up for a couple of days; and two of our horses ultimately 

 got tick fever, but recovered. 



In mid-afternoon of our third day in this camp we at 

 last had matters in such shape that Kermit and I could 



My first " tommy ' (Thomson's gazelle) 

 Front a photograph l>y Kiiniuiid Heller 



begin our hunting; and forth we rode, he with Hill, I with 

 Sir Alfred, each accompanied by his gun-bearers and sais, 

 and by a few porters to carry in the game. For two or 

 three miles our little horses shuffled steadily northward 

 across the desolate flats of short grass until the ground 

 began to rise here and there into low hills, or koppies, with 

 rock-strewn tops. It should have been the rainy season, 

 the season of "the big rains"; but the rains were late, as 

 the parched desolation of the landscape bore witness; nev- 

 ertheless there were two or three showers that afternoon. 

 We soon began to see game, but the flatness of the country 

 and the absence of all cover made stalking a matter of diffi- 



