vi A LARGE HYAENA KILLED 101 



a few yards of them, and in the full light of the fires, 

 they of course saw him, and as he seized the eland 

 skin and dashed off with it, scattering my horses' 

 feed to the winds as he did so, the dogs rushed after 

 him, barking loudly. I do not know exactly what 

 the green hide of a big- eland bull may weigh, but 

 it is certainly very much heavier than the skin of a 

 bullock, and of course a very awkward thing to 

 carry off, as the weight would be distributed over so 

 much ground. Yet, although this hyaena had only 

 a start of a few yards, my dogs did not overtake 

 him, or at any rate did not force him to drop the 

 skin, until he had reached the little stream of water 

 that ran through the valley more than a hundred yards 

 below my camp. Here we found the dogs guarding 

 it a few minutes later, and again dragged it back to 

 the waggon. 



I knew the hyaena would follow, so I went and 

 sat outside the camp behind a little bush on the 

 trail of the skin, and very soon he walked close up 

 to me. I could only just make out a something 

 darker than the night, but as it moved, I knew it 

 could be nothing but the animal I was waiting for, 

 and when it was very near me I fired and wounded 

 it, and we killed it in the little creek below the 

 camp. It proved to be a very large old male 

 hyaena, which the Mashunas said had lately killed 

 several head of cattle, besides many sheep and goats. 



I cannot help thinking that this hyaena must 

 have thrown part of the heavy hide over his 

 shoulders as he seized it, though I cannot say that 

 I saw him do this, but if he did not half carry it, I 

 don't believe he could possibly have gone off with it 

 at the pace he did, for the dogs did not overtake him 

 until he had nearly reached the stream, more than 

 a hundred yards distant from my camp. I am in- 

 clined to the view that this hyaena must have half 

 carried, half dragged this heavy hide, as I once saw 



