24 PEACE: LION HUNTING 



our camp, I left in the evening on "Tommy," a 

 young grey gelding purchased in Windhuk, to see 

 what the track was like through the sand belt. 

 Not a drop of water was left in either of the big 

 vleys, and it was late before I got back to camp 

 the next evening. Nothing now remained but to 

 wait till some storms should bring water and 

 open the road, and storms were already brewing 

 every alternate day. As a matter of fact, it was 

 nearly three weeks before the first water, on the 

 road about thirteen miles out, was sufficient to 

 enable us to push on. 



During the spell at Tsinsabis we shot a fair 

 number of small buck to keep the camp in meat, 

 and there was also bigger game as well, for one 

 morning a beautiful white koodoo cow passed me 

 quite close. The dog I had bought at a German 

 farm, and which we had patriotically christened 

 Dingo, came in useful in procuring partridges for 

 the pot, as when flushed they invariably took to 

 the top of the tree. Joe was a great hand at the 

 partridges. One morning when he returned with 

 two partridges only, though I had thought I had 

 heard him fire three times, I said to him, " What, 

 only two birds, Joe, from three shots ? " " Oh," 

 said Joe, " mind one of them was running." 



Poisonous snakes were fairly plentiful about 

 here, and an enormous brute — his length must 

 have been at least ten feet — came in pursuit of a 

 species of rat quite close one morning before Joe 

 shot him. It was apparently what is called a 



