SOUTH AFRICA FIFTY YEARS AGO 87- 
—the camp fires dull ; in this way, too, you learn more of the 
_ country through which you are travelling. We had pottered 
about, shot a giraffe, and some smaller game, when accident- 
ally we lighted upon a herd of elephants. Now you very 
seldom come across elephants by chance; you have nearly 
always to follow them for miles from the water ; but here they 
were, and eight fine bulls too—nothing very large in tusks, 
but all good. Though startled, they stood and fronted us. 
We each took one of the flankers, firing at the point of the 
shoulder. With a flourish of trumpets the whole eight charged 
in a crescent—it was a grand sight—we turned and galloped 
right and left, the bulls pressing after Murray, and in their 
course driving up an old mahoho, who puffed and snorted, 
___ and putting on full steam managed at last to get clear, in great 
_ alarm. We only bagged a couple ; in after years with more 
___ knowledge I should have got at least four single-handed. 
__ The season was drawing on, and we set our heads south- 
_ ward and westward towards Mabotsé, and, shaking the dear 
old Doctor and Mrs. Livingstone by the hand, went down to the 
Colony, I to refit for next year, Murray to return to England. 
I should have managed very well with the stores I had, but 
_ from December to April you cannot keep your horses alive— 
_the horse sickness kills every one. This mysterious illness, 
though an epidemic at the Cape, is endemic through the old 
hunting grounds. It is said to be peripneumonia, and to arise 
from the rank vegetation springing up after the first rains ; but 
I think some other explanation of its cause than this nik be 
found, as the horses suffered just the same once when I was 
crossing the Bakalahari desert rather too early in the season, 
for I lost six in nine days. Bleeding to exhaustion seems the 
only remedy, and one or two I certainly managed to pull 
through by opening the veins at both sides of their necks 
at once, and letting the blood run till I could push them down 
with my hand. Had it not been for this we should never 
have taken the trouble of the long journey to and fro, but have 
‘remained quiet for the hot months, and then resumed the 
campaign when the weather became cooler. 
