44 BUSH-RANGERS' REST" 113 



well informed of all the news and all the rumours, 

 both up and down the rivers. Then, too, we were 

 anxious to shoot enough game to give us a good 

 supply of reserved biltong always on hand. For 

 this reason I was particularly pleased to come upon 

 a fine herd of forty or fifty eland, three of which 

 I managed to kill with my little sporting Lee- 

 Enfield — all dead shots. Of course they were 

 really very easy shots, as the big buck were flurried 

 and did not know which way to run. Still, as I 

 am but a moderate shot, and as I only used four 

 cartridges, there was justification for boasting at 

 the result, especially as my two comrades in the 

 camp, who heard the four rapid shots, were scep- 

 tical when I told them what the bag was. Un- 

 fortunately, one of the three was a cow ; it is 

 always hateful to kill the female, particularly of 

 the eland species. 



Now that we had plenty of meat for some time 

 ahead, Rensberg and I took a five days' patrol 

 up the river beyond a place called Boopa, where 

 there was a waterfall quite pretty, though not very 

 high. The beautiful clear water of the Quito (a 

 fine stream about eighty yards across at this point) 

 falls over a cascade of some forty feet, and the 

 noise is heard for miles around. 



A small village of raw but most friendly savages 

 was near-by. The head-man, a jovial customer, 

 brought me a little grain for my boys, and I, 

 thinking both to repay this little courtesy and also 

 replenish our own meat supply, made inquiries 

 8 



