34 ON SAFARI 



difficult to do justice to all. Buslibuck inhabited the 

 dense "lion-scrub" that fringed the east river. These, 

 like the waterbuck,. are nocturnal. We saw them at 

 dawn ; and, shortly before sundown, they again showed 

 up outside the jungle, feeding among the scattered trees. 

 One special buck attracted my attention — coal-black he 

 appeared in his glossy pile. Next evening, punctual to 

 a minute, he appeared with his three does. The river 

 here, to our great vexation, we found impassable owing 

 to the thorny jungle that fringed it. Presently Elmi 

 discovered a sort of tunnel about 3 ft. high — pre- 

 sumably the property of a hippo — and down this we 

 had crawled nearly to the water's edge, when, from our 

 side, something (we could not see what) plunged with 

 sounding splash into the pool. " Big croc," whispered 

 Elmi. It was very tantalising, but the result was that, 

 after ascertaining the depth to exceed a yard, our coveted 

 bushbuck ram was left to feed in peace on the other 

 bank. An intense aversion to reptiles — especially great 

 subaquatic reptiles — possesses most of us, and a recol- 

 lection of that picture in Arthur Neumann's Elephant 

 Hunting, p. 309, does not allay it. 



Then there were the " grass-antelopes." Every day 

 as we traversed the bush in search of bigger things, the 

 ubiquitous duiker and steinbuck kept bouncing out from 

 long grass or thin scrub at thirty or forty yards' distance 

 Both these little antelopes move very high by the stern, 

 and being fat to boot, convey an idea of exaggerated 

 footballs as they dive away through the Inish. Smaller 

 still are the dikdiks, also numerous, and all hereabouts 

 of the " Cavendish " species {Madoqua cavendishi). A 

 male shot here weiohed onlv 11 lbs., yet was a thorouoh- 

 bred little antelope at that, with annulated horns a trilie 

 over 3 ins. in length, and tiny hoofs on the end of long 

 legs no thicker than a pencil — a perfect miniature. 



One morning on the Enderit, coming round a bend, 

 I "jumped" close by a heavy, thick-set beast that, with 

 horns laid back flat along the withers, crashed away 

 through the brushwood. Not knowing what it was, I 



