In Wildest Africa -^ 



or the mere bare ground, dun-coloured and brown, or 

 land covered with soft green grass. But how clearly 

 defined are its brown, black, and white, when we look 

 closely at the hide of a specimen we have secured, or 

 see it in a museum. 



Darker spots in the distance far away from us we 

 take to be larger wild animals. The iield-glass shows 

 that they are hartebeests, and a great number of water- 

 buck ; and still farther off there is a moving mass that 

 shimmers and is half lost in the glare of the morning sun. 

 There are zebras, and yet more zebras, moving like 

 living walls! Strange effects of light actually give us the 

 impression of something like a wall or rampart, made up 

 of the living forms of the zebras — the deep shadows they 

 throw^ come out black, their flanks are lighted up in the 

 dazzling sunshine, and they shimmer with all colours and 

 with ever-changing effect. 



Here by the lake we have the characteristic mark of 

 the wilderness : dwarf gazelles and zebras, zebras and 

 dwarf gazelles in greater and greater multitudes! Wherever 

 the eye glances it falls upon these two species, and the 

 numerous waterbuck and Grant's gazelles, and the 

 hundreds of hartebeests, are in a sense mere points of 

 relief for the sight amidst these vast crowds. Bathed 

 in the shimmering light this multitude of animals mingles 

 together. Wherever I make my appearance there is for 

 awhile movement in the mass of wild creatures, which 

 otherwise are grazing quiedy. I have long since left the 

 camp a considerable distance behind me. I am following 

 one of the rhinoceros — or hippopotamus — tracks leading to 



20 



