84 SAFARI 



light work near the waterholes around the base camp 

 or in its vicinity. Cameras were carefully concealed 

 in brush near the trails and wires strung across the 

 paths. By a device consisting of small disks on 

 springs, the contact of an animal's foot with the wires 

 would set off my flash. 



At first we had little success. We got things like 

 little gennet cats which are cunning enough 

 ordinarily, but seemed to be moved to investigate our 

 mechanism. However, these were not the fellows we 

 came after. 



The night of my first successful flashlight I was in 

 bed when we heard the report and the boys came 

 running in filled with excitement. Two rhinos had 

 set off the flash with results that turned out later to be 

 splendid. Of cotirse the discharge scared away all 

 game in the vicinity for some time. But five hours 

 later the flash went off again, released by some bird or 

 other small animal. To make matters worse the glare 

 and thud of the explosion stampeded a herd of 

 elephants that had wandered in. 



At some of the waterholes where we had placed our 

 flashes we found that birds had flown into the wire 

 at such a terrific speed that everything was broken 

 and we had no pictures; again elephants' feet had 

 twisted the wires and snapped them; and such 

 pictures, as we took of waterfowl were vague and 

 blurred because the birds, after striking the wire, 



