Snowball was tethered in a patch of good grass, and 

 Jock and I were lying in the shade. 



When he began to sniff and walk up wind I took 

 the rifle and followed, and only a little way off we 

 came into dry vlei ground where there were few trees 

 and the grass stood about waist high. Some two 

 hundred yards away where the ground rose slightly 

 and the bush became thicker there was a fair sized 

 troop of impala, perhaps a hundred or more, and just 

 behind, and mostly to one side of them, were between 

 twenty and thirty tsessebe. We saw them clearly 

 and in time to avoid exposing ourselves : they were 

 neither feeding nor resting, but simply standing about, 

 and individual animals were moving unconcernedly 

 from time to time with an air of idle loitering. I 

 tried to pick out a good tsessebe ram, but the impala 

 were in the way, and it was necessary to crawl for some 

 distance to reach certain cover away on the right. 



Crawling is hard work and very rough on both hands 

 and knees in the Bushveld, frequent rests being neces- 

 sary ; and in one of the pauses I heard a curious sound 

 of soft padded feet jumping behind me, and looking 

 quickly about caught Jock in the act of taking his 

 observations. The grass was too high for him to see 

 over, even when he stood up on his hind legs, and he 

 was giving jumps of slowly increasing strength to get 

 the height which would enable him to see what was on. 

 I shall never forget that first view of Jock's ballooning 

 observations ; it became a regular practice afterwards 

 and I grew accustomed to seeing him stand on his hind 

 legs or jump when his view was shut out indeed 

 319 



