84 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



third or fourth day the last twenty-four hours without water 

 for the cattle. 



This day ought to be marked with a very large though dull- 

 coloured stone in my shooting annals. Murray made a long 

 detour to the N.E., intending to strike the river lower down 

 and follow it up to the encampment. I kept within easy 

 distance of the waggons, as I was anxious to see the cattle 

 watered and well cared for. I shot two large bull elephants 

 and a rhinoceros, and one of the drivers killed a giraffe and a 

 quagga. I think we must have been near the river, for men 

 were left behind to cut them up and dry the flesh, and I do 

 not remember any other water within reach. It was about 

 3 P.M. when we drew up on the bank, and I was sitting down 

 and enjoying the pleasant sight of the thirsty beasts taking 

 their fill, when I heard three shots in quick succession three- 

 quarters of a mile down stream. It could only be Murray, for 

 there were no guns in the country in those days except our 

 own and those of the Boers far away to the eastward, and my 

 Kafirs would have told me soon enough had any stray party of 

 these been about. Again came shot after shot, and thinking 

 Murray was either in trouble or had fallen in with a herd 

 of buffalo, the spoor of which was very plentiful, I caught 

 one of the ponies, and putting the bit in his mouth, kicked 

 him along as fast as he could go in his waterlogged con- 

 dition. 



Immediately opposite the sound of the guns the bush was 

 so thick I could not get through with the horse ; so, tying him 

 to a tree on the outside, I crawled in, and came upon a kind 

 of backwater from the main river, very deep, 150 yards long 

 by fifty wide, with high banks, especially the one opposite me, 

 on which sat the dear old laird blazing away right merrily his 

 after-rider helping him keep up the cannonade by loading one 

 of the guns. ' What is it ? ' I shouted. ' Look at those beasts,' he 

 replied bang. ' There again ' bang. ' Look ! ' he cried. The 

 pool was alive with monstrous heads, and though this was the 

 first time I had seen the hippopotamus in the flesh fat, per- 



