130 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



ance of there being some big gland or bare place at the root 

 of each horn. 



The other impalla buck also showed an unexpected 

 softness, succumbing to* a wound which I do not believe 

 would have given me either a white-tailed or a black-tailed 

 deer. I had been vainly endeavoring to get a waterbuck 

 bull, and as the day was growing hot I was riding home- 

 ward, scanning the edge of the plain where it merged into 

 the trees that extended out from the steep bank that hemmed 

 in one side of the river-bottom. From time to time we 

 would see an impalla or a waterbuck making its way from 

 the plain back to the river-bottom, to spend the day in the 

 shade. One of these I stalked, and after a good deal of 

 long-range shooting broke a hind leg high up. It got out 

 of sight and we rode along the edge of the steep descent 

 which lf;d down into the river-bottom proper. In the bot- 

 tom there were large, open, grassy places, while the trees 

 made a thick fringe along the river course. We had given 

 up the impalla and turned out toward the plain, when one 

 of my gun-bearers whistled to us and said he had seen the 

 wounded animal cross the bottom and go into the fringe 

 of trees bounding a deep pool in which we knew there were 

 both hippos and crocodiles. We were off our horses at 

 once, and, leaving them at the top, scrambled down the 

 descent and crossed the bottom to the spot indicated. The 

 impalla had lain down as soon as it reached cover, and as 

 we entered the fringe of wood I caught a glimpse of it 

 getting up and making off. Yet fifty yards farther it 

 stopped again, standing right on the brink of the pool, so 

 close that when I shot it, it fell over into the water. 



When, after arranging for this impalla to be carried 

 back to the farm, we returned to where 'our horses had 

 been left, the boys told us with much excitement that there 

 was a large snake near by; and sure enough a few yards 

 off, coiled up in the long grass under a small tree, was a 

 python. I could not see it distinctly, and using a solid bul- 

 let I just missed the backbone, the bullet going through 



