236 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES CHAP. 



almost immediately stood, the ram with his hind- 

 quarters towards us ; so, judging the distance between 

 us to be about three hundred yards, I put up the 

 third sight, and sitting down took a careful shot at 

 him. I thought I heard the bullet strike, but as he 



O 



ran lightly behind the two ewes without showing 

 any sign of being hit, I began to think I must have 

 been mistaken. Before going far, however, he 

 stopped suddenly for a few moments, and then 

 rolled over on his side, apparently dead. On walk- 

 ing up to him, however, we found him still alive, 

 although on examination the bullet proved to have 

 passed through the lower part of his heart, having 

 first hit him in the belly between the hind-legs and 

 gone forwards through the whole length of his body. 



Whilst Longman and I were cutting up the 

 reedbuck, the lady porters took their loads to the 

 ferry, which was close at hand, and then returned 

 for the meat ; and when we had got everything 

 down to the river, we shouted for the ferryman 

 to take us to the other side. 



It was some time before the native Charon made 

 his appearance, and, whilst we were waiting for 

 him, my lady porters ate up about half the reed- 

 buck, and I also made a good breakfast, and skinned 

 the head, which was a pretty good one. Just where 

 we crossed the river we saw some elephant spoor 

 which looked fairly recent, and the natives told 

 us that a herd of these animals roamed over the 

 country between the Tembe and Maputa rivers, 

 and sometimes passed close to their kraal on their 

 way to drink in the latter stream. The banks 

 of the river presented a very pretty appearance 

 at the time of our crossing, as all the bushes were 

 covered with convolvulus creepers in full bloom. 



It was past midday when we again resumed 

 our journey, and light showers had already be<^un 

 to fall, and continued to do so during the remainder 



