MY THREE SEA-COWS. 59 



eighty yards, and bagged the pair of them. Neither 

 carried particularly good heads, but we required some 

 beef in camp. 



On the second night after the killing of the two sea- 

 cows an unfortunate occurrence happened. My dogs ran 

 loose in camp, as it never occurred to me that they could 

 come to any harm. One of them went down to the river 

 bank at night to drink. I am glad to say it was not 

 Four-and-six. We heard a loud howl, and as the dog did 

 not return, the Caffres went down with torches, and re- 

 turned reporting that the dog had been taken by a 

 crocodile. I tied up Four-and-six, which seemed to 

 annoy the poor fellow, for he considered it his privilege 

 to run loose and rush out at night-time barking furiously 

 at anything unusual. However, I pacified him by having 

 him tied up close to me. 



On the fourth day, having been unsuccessful in dis- 

 covering any more sea-cows, I determined to go down to 

 the junction of the Umlumazi with the Inkomokazi 

 River. When we had travelled about three hours down 

 stream, the river got very much wider, and there were 

 large sand banks here and there above the surface. On 

 one of these I counted no less than eighteen crocodiles 

 basking in the sun. 



A little farther on we came to some little falls. The 

 river here ran amongst boulders of granite rock. Moyen 

 suddenly pulled me down and pointed excitedly, saying, 

 " There is a sea-bullsuch a big one ! " At first I looked 

 at the water, and seeing nothing turned my eyes to the 

 rocks, but still failed to observe anything, until Moyen 

 showed me what looked for all the world like a rock, 

 but on careful inspection turned out to be a great sea- 

 bull fast asleep. 



