176 



ON SAFAEI 



morass, we eagerly plunged sliorewards, mired up to the 

 eyes, but looking forward to a few moments' rest on terra 

 Jirma ere resuming the chase. But that was not to be 

 our lot. Hardly had we cleared this purgatory than we 

 found ourselves surrounded by a pack of hunting-dogs 

 that kept bounding up among the bushes on every side. 

 I tried my very hardest to kill one, but they were not 

 easy to hit, so rapidly did they appear and disappear 

 among the covert. Three or four shots produced no 

 visible effect, though, even had one or more do.o's been 



"> \ 



\Jk 



>^ 



^ 



^>' 







A PACK OF WILD-DOGS. 



killed, they would necessarily have dropped below our 

 sight. 



" Presentlv a big black-and-tan dog, coming out on an 

 open, reared upright to see what was going on, and 

 received a bullet in the head that dropped him ' all of a 

 heap.' On running forward to the kill — which involved 

 a long detour and finally plunging waist-deep through a 

 channel of black mire — we observed another of the pack 

 limping away with a broken leg. 



"Following on the spoor, which was easily held on 

 more open ground beyond, we had just entered some 

 thin wood, when Ali touched my shoulder, pointing 

 forward through the trees. There, cantering back 



