BUFFALO 189 



On our homeward way that evening 1 , triumphant but 

 weary and heavy-laden, we espied towards the outskirts 

 of the forest, two big and bulky-looking beasts that in 

 the rays of a lowering sun shone silvery-grey. It was 

 then too late to undertake a fresh adventure ; but we 

 (Lowe and I) were convinced that these animals were a 

 pair of elands, and that conviction was corroborated by 

 Lynes reporting the same evening that he also had seen 

 two big pale-coloured beasts with pronounced hump on 

 withers, unknown to him. Presumably almost certainly 

 in both cases the animals seen were elands, and the 

 interest of the observation lies in the fact that eland 

 (scarce anywhere in the Sudan) are not known to range 

 north of Mongalla, 400 miles away. Mr E. S. Grogan, 

 however, subsequently informed us that he had met with 

 eland (also with lechwi) on a marshy khor running south- 

 east from the Zeraf River at a point 120 miles from its 

 junction with White Nile, and approximately at a similar 

 distance from where we saw the presumed elands to-day. 



It is pertinent, however, to add that during the 

 remainder of our sojourn in this region, though we daily 

 traversed many leagues of these wild woods and always 

 with a special eye for elands we failed to see them again, 

 or to glean any further evidence of their presence therein. 



So ended that nineteenth of February, 1914 a 

 memorable date that in my humble hunting -annals 

 stands alongside a "Glorious First of September," as 

 recorded in Wild Norway ; also with our three lions at 

 Nakuru, and four elephants at Solai (plus a rhinoceros 

 the same morning!), as chronicled in On Safari; besides 

 several others, during forty years, in Wild Spain. 



ON THE HAUNTS AND HABITS OF BUFFALO 



These virgin forests, with their teeming game, we 

 came to regard as our private buffalo-preserve by right 

 of discovery, and delightful days we spent therein 



