A CAMERAMAN'S TROUBLES 193 



inhuman, scent of the camera man does not reach 

 the animal on some wafting breeze. If possible, the 

 blind should be slightly higher than the spot to be 

 pictured because the scent, carried by the rising heat 

 of the body, tends to go upward. Also the blind 

 must be as perfect a bit of camouflage as possible. 

 Wild animals have critical eyes. They do not admirt 

 a conspicuous blind. It offends their taste in land- 

 scape and challenges their sense of discretion. They 

 do not enjoy having their Africa tinkered with. 

 They do not like the click of a camera either. They 

 never get consciously confidential with a photog- 

 rapher. African animals have only two lines of 

 action with reference to the camera. They either 

 run from it or at it. Neither treatment is entirely 

 satisfactory to the man behind the camera. 



Most of the members of the mmierous antelope 

 family and the other grazing animals like the giraffe 

 and zebra can be photographed from blinds. Also 

 now and then one gets a chance at lions and leopards 

 and other beasts of prey which follow the herbivorous 

 animals to the waterholes. But there are animals in 

 Africa which seldom or never drink — the gerenuk for 

 instance. It is but the merest chance if such animals 

 stray within the range of a waterhole blind. They 

 must be stalked afoot by the cameraman. It is 

 always a stem chase, which is notoriously a long 

 chase — with usually nothing more to reward the 



