170 LARGE GAME. chap. hi. 



parts too steep for anything, though the eland did not 

 seem to care at what angle they went so long as it was 

 down hill. A waggon encampment, though here losing 

 the fine effect of great fires gleaming among the recesses 

 of dark jungle which the bush country affords, is always 

 more or less picturesque, and on this night, as I saw it on 

 going outside after bringing our conversation about circum- 

 venting the elands to a close, it seemed to me especially so. 

 There was just enough moonlight to make the tent of the 

 waggon, and the smaller one I inhabited close by, show 

 snow-white against the dark sky, and to enable one to see 

 the outlines of the oxen which were fastened to their yokes, 

 some lying, others standing, in a long line extending 

 twenty yards from the waggon itself, and to note their 

 immensely wide-spreading horns breaking the sky-line, 

 while from the small and neglected fires enough smoke rose 

 on the quiet air to denote their existence, and the direction 

 of what breath of wind might be stirring, and round them, 

 more from force of habit than for protection from cold or 

 wild beasts, lay all the natives, with two or three great 

 yellow Boer hounds belonging to my friend, while the 

 occasional stamp of a horse's foot betrayed where the out- 

 lines of their legs might be traced beneath the waggon 

 which otherwise concealed them. 



I did not even go into my tent that night, but sitting 

 under the waggon out of the reach of the dew, smoking 

 and enjoying the refreshing coolness, I fell asleep where 

 I was, and did not awake till the grey dawn of morning 

 was struggling for mastery with the light given by the 

 setting moon. It was chilly, and I was cold and stiff, but 

 the natives were already up, and I was almost immediately 



