40 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
the bushes were leafless, the twigs dry, the grass dust, the 
ground iron, and all animal, bird, and even insect life com- 
pletely absent. In those two days we felt and knew the 
abomination of desolation, and so did our poor beasts. 
Nothing particular happened during our journey between the 
two rivers. We shot and trekked—one day much like another 
—and stopped a short time at Kuruman, the station of that 
grand old patriarch of missionaries, Mr. Moffat, where we re- 
ceived all the kindly hospitality, attention and advice possible 
from him and Mrs. Moffat—verily the two best friends travel- 
lers ever came across. I shall never forget their affectionate 
courtesy, their beautifully ordered household, and their earnest 
desire to help us on in every way. He advised us to go to 
Livingstone, who was then stationed at Mabotsé, 220 miles or 
so to the northward, and obtain from him guides and counsel 
for our further wanderings. 
We were once nearly in trouble, however, after leaving Kuru- 
man. We had crossed a little stream called, I think, the Merit- 
sani, and one of our men, while cooking some tit-bit of an 
antelope Murray had shot far away from the camp, carelessly 
set the grass on fire. Luckily we saw it two miles off, and by 
clearing the ground, and burning the stubble round the 
waggons, we escaped. It was a wonderful sight to watch the 
wall of smoke and flame as it licked up the grass and bush and 
coiled itself in folds about the tree stems ; birds, insects, and 
beasts fleeing before it. As it approached our clearing, the 
heat was intense, and we had some difficulty in restraining the 
frightened horses and oxen; but the roaring rolling flame 
came within thirty yards of us, and then as it touched the edge 
of our charmed circle died away into nothingness, its dis- 
appointment seeming to goad it onward to right and left. » 
The flat open country held till we reached the Molopo 
River. The sketch very correctly represents this little stream 
- when we first saw it, and gives a good general idea of the 
500 or 600 miles we had come. Seven different kinds of 
animals were within view, some, especially the quaggas 
