SPORT ON THE GUASO MARU 



which we were following several hundred yards ahead. By 

 hurrying forward I was able to approach within easy range of 

 these graceful gazelles, and sat down in the grass to pick out 

 the best heads as they filed across the trail, one hundred and 

 fifty yards distant. These handsome animals presented a 

 striking and beautiful sight as they fed across the plain in a 

 dun-colored mass, which was enlivened by the vivid black-and- 

 white lateral marking of the more numerous does. Among 

 these stalked a number of stately little bucks, their long, grace- 

 fully curved, jet-black horns towering above the slenderer 

 spikes carried by the more brightly colored does. i\fter five 

 reports from the rifle this herd of gazelles disappeared into 

 distant higher grass in an undulating, bounding line. It 

 chanced, however, that two of the best of the bucks remained 

 behind. One of these had gone down immediately, shot through 

 the heart ; the other, with a shattered shoulder, struggled along 

 for about one hundred yards, until overtaken and dispatched 

 by our fierce-visaged Swahili cook, Zimba, who was always in 

 at the finish in any shooting along the route of march. The 

 measurements of the heads of these two bucks were, respective- 

 ly: (i) right horn — length, twenty- three inches; circumference 

 of base, seven inches ; left horn — length, twenty-three and one- 

 quarter inches; circumference of base, seven inches; between 

 tips, five and one-half inches; (2) right horn — length, nineteen 

 inches; circumference of base, six inches; left horn — length, 

 nineteen inches; circumference of base,five and one-half inches; 

 between tips, six inches. 



A mile beyond this we camped for the night at a small, muddy 

 creek which meandered through the high grass. Fuguet soon 

 arrived with the news that during the afternoon he had shot 

 a good Granti buck and a bull rhinoceros. He had almost 

 stumbled over the rhino in the grass, and, as a precaution at 

 such close range, had been obliged to mortally wound it with 

 the heavy rifle he was carr>4ng. Rounding a large, red ant-hill 



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