SOUTHERN AFRICA. 165 



CHAPTEK XXIII. 



ELEPHANT HUNTING IN THE CASHAN MOUNTAINS. 



Before daybreak the following' morning* it was discovered 

 that the oxen, having- been alarmed by lions, had made 

 their escape from the pound. A party was despatched in 

 pursuit of them, and we proceeded into the hills to look 

 for buffaloes. The thunder-storm having- purified the at- 

 mosphere, rendered the weather delightfully cool, and a 

 deep wooded defile which had not been approached by 

 the conflag-ration of the day before, was filled with g-ame 

 that had fled before the flames. A rhinoceros was killed 

 almost immediately, and before we had reloaded, a noble 

 herd of nearly one hundred and fifty buffaloes was perceived 

 on a slope overhang-ing* a sedg-y stream. Having* crept 

 within five-and-twenty yards, we despatched two bulls before 

 the alarm was spread. Crashing* throug*h the forest, they 

 overturned decayed trees in their route, and swept along* 

 the brow of the opposite hill in fearful confusion, squeezed 

 together in a compact phalanx, and raising* an incredible 

 cloud of dust to mark their course. We mounted our 

 horses, and, after sticking some time in the treacherous mud 

 of the rivulet, g-ained the opposite bank, and broug-ht two 

 more to bay, which were despatched after several charg"es. 

 Our savag*e fi*iends, still torpid from their yesterday's feast, 

 had not made their appearance ', we therefore despatched 

 Claas, after breakfast was over, to bring* in some marrow- 

 bones, in the act of collecting* which delicacies, he was put 

 to flig'ht by a lion that jumped out of a bush close to him, 



