"hunting" VERSUS "shooting." 75 



This finished the first phase of my campaign, as after that I went off elsewhere. 



However, a short time later I returned to see if the buffalo or elephant had 

 revisited the spot. Equipped with the information on Map 4, I pushed on to the 

 camp by the river. There I searched up and down for fresh spoor and visited the 

 water-holes, but, finding none, moved camp on to the bend of the river. There was 

 nothing there either, so, as I knew of no other spot away from the river where water 

 was obtainable, a blind trek in any direction would be unlikely to hit off one of 

 the few water-holes which, possibly, were concealed in the bush ; I decided, under 

 these circumstances, to follow the river down to try to find some more pools 

 beyond the dry part of the watercourse. 



The direction in which I had left the buffalo herd trekking on my last visit made 

 me feel certain that there were some other pools to be found. With this intention 

 I was proceeding downstream next morning when I came upon the fresh spoor of 

 elephants crossing the river from east to west. They had probably come from the 

 water-hole to the east. 



Sending back word to my camp to follow up, I pushed on after the elephants. 

 They were going straight on in a herd, and there were no signs of broken boughs 

 or fallen leaves by the way. After about four hours' going, I was brought out into an 

 open glade with water-pools. The spoor had been growing older, and, as they had 

 not even stopped to drink at these pools, it was evident that they also were on trek, 

 and it seemed hopeless to follow them any farther. They had crossed the river early 

 during the previous night, and so had fourteen hours' start of me. 



I was interested to find a well-beaten rhino path traversing the length of the 

 glade, for these animals are not at all common in the country. There was also 

 some fairly fresh buffalo spoor, which I followed, but did not succeed in coming 

 up with the animals. 



I passed and repassed the rhino path, and also noted a spot where elephant 

 seemed to be in the habit of coming to strip a certain kind of bark off the trees. 

 A number of these trees were denuded of bark, and this was not the result of 

 one visit from a large herd, as by the spoor it was apparent that elephants had been 

 there on several occasions. Returning to the glade about sunset I was glad to find 

 that my camp had caught me up and that food was ready. 



Next morning I found fresh spoor by going up the valley of the glade for a few 

 miles. This spoor I followed and came up with some buffalo about noon, but 

 bungled the shot. Following them up once more across a broken country of ravines 

 and nullahs, I came up with them at another set of pools and mud-holes about 

 sundown. There I shot one and bivouacked for the night, and next morning sent 



