Two Sable Bulls Killed. 151 



headman of the small village on its banks was named Beni, 

 and he had served several years in the King's African Rifles, 

 a fine corps of native soldiers. He showed me his medal 

 for the Ashanti campaign, in which he took part, and he 

 was a very civil sort of man, and offered to get another 

 man and show me the best game country ahead. While 

 he was away I had some lunch, and the carriers got a rest 

 and some food. Then, Beni having returned with a friend, 

 we started off through the bush for the country right under 

 Mausi (pronounced "Ma-usi") Hill. Here we came to a 

 dirty waterhole, so, as game spoor was thickly imprinted 

 on the ground in every direction, I put my tent up under a 

 big tree. 



At three o'clock I went out with Beni and the other man, 

 taking besides about six men to carry in any meat I got. The 

 guide took me through some fairly open country, covered 

 with short, stiff grass and full of thorn trees, and we had 

 not gone far before I saw a herd of sable antelopes. Tell- 

 ing the men to sit down and keep quiet, I managed, with a 

 good lot of trouble and a plentiful amount of scratches, to 

 get within 150 yards of the game. One bull was very black, 

 so I thought he would likely carry a good head, and I fired 

 at him. At the shot he ran off with the herd, but stood 

 after going a short distance, when I fired again and dropped 

 him. I then killed another male before the herd had vanished. 



The oldest animal measured 55m. at the shoulder, and 

 he had rather an abnormal head, for the horns were 

 extremely thick and cobby, though they only measured 

 about 33in. in the curve. This was not a young sable, but 

 a very old beast, with large bulges on the base of his horns. 

 Only fully adult animals have these bulges. As his body 

 measurements were very large, I came back next day and 

 took his complete skin for setting up. Most of the meat 

 of the other animal was carried to camp and eaten up that 

 night by my hungry men. 



On the 25th I wounded a bull sable with a very pretty 

 pair of horns, but lost him. After getting back to camp 

 and having some food and a rest, I decided to go back 



