CHAPTER VIII 

 HUNTING IN THE SOTIK 



OUR next camp was in the middle of the vast plains, by 

 some limestone springs, at one end of a line of dark acacias. 

 There were rocky koppies two or three miles off on either 

 hand. From the tents, and white-topped wagons, we could 

 see the game grazing on the open flats, or among the scat- 

 tered wizened thorns. The skies were overcast, and the 

 nights cool; in the evenings the camp-fires blazed in front 

 of the tents, and after supper we gathered round them, 

 talking, or sitting silently, or listening to Kermit strum- 

 ming on his mandolin. 



The day after reaching this camp we rode out, hoping 

 to get either rhino or giraffe; we needed additional speci- 

 mens of both for the naturalists, who especially wanted 

 cow giraffes. It was cloudy and cool, and the common 

 game was shy; though we needed meat, I could not get 

 within fair range of the wildebeest, hartebeest, topi, or big 

 gazelle; however I killed a couple of tommies, one by a 

 good shot, the other running, after I had missed him in 

 rather scandalous fashion while he was standing. 



An hour or two after leaving the tents we made out 

 on the sky-line a couple of miles to our left some objects 

 which scrutiny showed to be giraffe. After coming within 

 a mile the others halted and I rode ahead on the tranquil 

 sorrel, heading for a point toward which the giraffe were 

 walking; stalking w r as an impossibility, and I was pre- 

 pared either to manoeuvre for a shot on foot, or to ride 

 them, as circumstances might determine. I carried the 

 little Springfield, being desirous of testing the small, solid, 

 sharp-pointed army bullet on the big beasts. As I rode, 

 a wildebeest bull played around me within two hundred 



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