258 



IN AFRICA 



Plateau. You couldn't go half a mile in any direc- 

 tion without stirring up large family parties of 

 them, and a landscape looked lonely unless one 

 could see a few oribi bounding over the ant-hills or 

 rising and falling as they leaped through the grass. 

 When we first went into the plateau the grass was 

 long and the oribi were for the most part fleeting 

 streaks of yellow over the tops of it, but later when 

 we came out the grass had been burned and the 



Mamma and the Little One 



young, tender grass had spread a green carpet over 

 the plains. Then the oribi were visible everywhere, 

 usually in groups of four or six. Also the mamma 

 oribis had given birth to bouncing baby oribis, and 

 the sight of the little ones was most pleasing to the 

 eyes. 



One day I was hot on the trail of a big water- 

 buck. The grass was deep at that part of the 

 plateau and I was pushing rapidly through it. 

 Suddenly one of my gunbearers, who was behind, 

 called out and pointed to something in the grass. I 



