14 LARGE GAME. chap. i. 



proportions, while I waited for the return of the Kaffir 

 from camp, where he had gone to get help to break it up. 



The best buffalo-shooting is undoubtedly to be found 

 in the reeds, particularly when a herd has taken refuge 

 in them ; for on such occasions none except the one fired 

 at will stir, and sometimes not even it, unless to charge, 

 and in consequence a very large number of shots may 

 often be fired at them in a limited time. When hunting 

 on the Nkwavuma in 1870, 1 had a good day in the reeds 

 which are found in the upper parts of that river. Two 

 Dutchmen were staying with me at the time, and as I am 

 not fond of hunting with a large number of people, I had 

 gone out accompanied by a single hunter, leaving the main 

 body to go with them. We took our way up the banks 

 of the Nkwavuma, partly in hopes of crossing the spoor of 

 some troop that might have been drinking, and partly on 

 the chance of any old bull or wounded animal that the 

 rhinoceros-birds might point out to us in the reeds that 

 bounded and concealed the winding stream. High banks, 

 clothed with dense evergreens, confined what must at 

 some remote period have been the bed of a very consider- 

 able river ; and as these bushes, on one side at least, were 

 a very favourite resort for the smaller herds of buffalo, I 

 undertook the task of examining them, while the hunter 

 skirted the reeds on the opposite side. 



In some places the reeds came close up under the 

 banks, and the belt of bushes dwindled down to a few 

 trees ; and as I passed such a spot the fresh spoor of a 

 lion descending towards it put me in mind of a story I 

 had lately heard from the Bombo Kaffirs about one of 

 their number, who, when out hunting, accompanied by a 



