122 After Big Game in Central Africa 



animals, or else, if they were incapable of discover- 

 ing them, to assist us in finding them again when 

 wounded. I spent much time and patience in train- 

 ing them, awaiting the occasion to make them ac- 

 quainted with the game which preferably I intended 

 them to hunt. 



Five hunters and four dogs make a becom- 

 ing retinue. Alas 1 as we shall see, I was far 

 from having realised my dream at the most my 

 dogs were good for ornamenting the camp. They 

 were unable to walk for two hours without hang- 

 ing out their tongues, and water was to be 

 carried expressly for them to revive them en route. 

 This would not have mattered if they had been of 

 service ; but how wretched was the behaviour of 

 my pack, and what a miserable, though well-merited, 

 end it met with ! I shall have to return to the 

 matter. Several months went by before I was able 

 to convince myself of the uselessness of my labours, 

 and to demonstrate that the dog of Central Africa 

 resembles his congener of the south in nothing. 



Gordon-Gumming, Selous, Kirby, and many others 

 have obtained inestimable services from the latter in 

 Austral Africa. The first -named even used it in 

 elephant-hunting ; the second owes a good number of 

 lions to it ; the third says that he never shot a 

 leopard without the assistance of his pack. Moreover, 

 in those flat countries they were always on horseback, 

 which considerably reduced distances and fatigue for 

 them. I myself could not use a horse, for various 

 reasons : first of all because of the uneven character 



