406 SAVAGE SUDAN 



we reached a so-called " water-hole," upon which we had 

 relied to renew our supplies. It proved to be merely the 

 filthy remnant of a shallow swamp, half an acre in extent, and 

 defiled both by game and baboons. The elands we were 

 following, about forty strong, though passing close by the 

 puddle, never actually touched the water at all. It was lucky 

 for us that they had passed it by, since otherwise such a crowd 

 would have consumed every remaining drop. We had actually 

 to halt for a couple of hours awaiting the departure of two 

 buffaloes which rolled and wallowed in the already noisome 

 stagnation. We were constrained, nevertheless, to refill our 

 empty girbas and water-skins with such foul fluid as remained. 



To revert to the earlier, one-day efforts, already noted as 

 futile. Although often following spoor for hours and sometimes 

 overhauling a herd to find that it consisted only of cows and 

 young beasts, yet more often we were defeated by the abound- 

 ing giraffes. In fact the whole venture sometimes degenerated 

 into a sort of "giraffe- drive," with a score or more of these 

 tall beasts scattered in a broad half-circle in front, and as 

 many more on either flank. When a giraffe, on this hard 

 iron-stone ground, breaks into his lumbering canter, the clatter 

 of huge hoofs resounds for miles around, and- gives alarm to 

 every other game-beast from dikdik to giant eland. 



Of the hardships of those six days and nights in the 

 " iron-stone " forest, sleeping on a bare ground - sheet and 

 suffering pangs of thirst never previously conceived, details 

 are unnecessary; rather let me attempt a brief summary of 

 what we were able to observe of the habits of our giant quarry. 

 Its total indifference to water has already been named ; nor 

 did any evidence of the eland's ever grazing come under our 

 observation. Here and there along their track some grass 

 had been cropped ; but since we never saw elands do this, and 

 since there were also present many tttel (Jackson's hartebeest), 

 it seemed probable that the latter animals were responsible 

 for what little cropped grass there was. The elands, whenever 

 under view, confined themselves to browsing on the foliage of 

 certain trees and shrubs one in particular, a Gardenia with a 

 waxy-looking leaf not unlike the tube-rose. Often the ground 

 along their course was strewn with the branches and twigs of 

 this shrub. The elands like everything else, man, bird, and 



