CHAPTER IX. 



THE BUSH. 



BY the bush I mean country that is not open plain and is not forest, but 

 is something between these two. I will include under this heading the 

 long elephant-grass country, which is the most difficult country of all in 

 which to approach any game animal. 



The sparsely bushed country is perhaps the most pleasant and easy country in 

 which to saunter, and is especially pleasant when a rest is needed after hard days 

 of hunting in thicker country, or after long and fatiguing days in the sun. For 

 in this kind of country all is open between the clumps of bush, and there is 

 no backaching work of crouching under overhanging branches or creepers, nor 

 any tearing of your way among thorns or pushing through thick vegetation. 

 When the grass has been burnt between these clumps the walking is generally 

 very easy and good. However, some of these clumps are very large, and 

 sometimes run in long belts, which, if you do not know the country thoroughly, 

 will prevent you from keeping to any one direction and will necessitate your 

 winding and twisting about and retracing steps to get round them. When 

 you wish to return to camp, it will be necessary to return either by the somewhat 

 devious route you have already taken, or you will have to judge the direction 

 of camp and dive through belts of bush and make your way as best you can. 



If you can do so, get to the top of a hill or some commanding piece of 

 ground, and from it take note of the country, which will often save you a 

 lot of trouble. For in bush country there is generally some open and easy 

 way from one place to another if that way can be found, though it may be a 

 little circuitous. This is excepting, however, any thickly bushed watercourses 

 which may traverse the country, but even these generally have places where the 

 enclosing bush narrows considerably and affords a fairly easy crossing. 



With reference to such watercourses, there is one rule of bushcraft, elementary 

 enough I should imagine, but one which does not always seem to be grasped by the 

 novice. It is, that if on your outward journey you cross any watercourse, it is then 

 impossible to find a way back to camp again which does not recross it, unless you 

 make a complete circle round its source. If you cross the same watercourse twice on 



