i 4 2 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES CHAP. 



brave and determined animal still came on, and 

 struck a blow at a Kafir who was trying to climb a 

 tree close beside me. It then, after running only a 

 short distance farther, lay down and died. Almost 

 always when a buffalo is dying it gives vent to a 

 moaning bellow, which can be heard at a considerable 

 distance. It is a sound which, once heard, can 

 never be forgotten. 



On June 24, 1877, I had a somewhat curious 

 experience with a buffalo on the banks of the Chobi 

 river. Some natives came to my camp on the 

 morning of that day and informed me that there 

 were three old buffalo bulls in the thick bush along 

 the river's edge only a few hundred yards away, 

 and at the same time begged me to try and shoot 

 them, as they and their people were very badly off 

 for food. Yielding to their entreaties, I at once 

 went after the buffaloes, and, putting my Bushmen 

 spoorers on their fresh tracks, soon came up with 

 them in some thickish bush, and killed two of them 

 with consecutive shots from a single-barrelled ten- 

 bore rifle. The third ran off towards the river, and 

 I dashed after him in hot pursuit. Just along the 

 edge of the bush, and fringing the open ground 

 which skirted the reedy swamp, through which the 

 river ran at this point, there grew a fringe of 

 palmetto scrub, the large leaves of which hung over 

 to the ground. Into this the buffalo dashed, and I 

 followed close behind him. I thought he had gone 

 through the palmetto scrub, into which one could 

 not see a yard, into the open ground beyond, and 

 so never slackened my pace, but went at it at full 

 speed ; but the old bull had halted suddenly, and 

 was standing still behind the screen formed by the 

 overhanging leaves of one of the palmetto bushes. 

 He could only just have turned himself broadside 

 to listen when I ran full tilt into him, and was 

 thrown on the ground Hat on my back by the 



