A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



boughs to protect it from the vultures, which were already 

 circling about in dozens, I continued in the search for game. 

 Shortly afterward a herd of about forty Grant's gazelles 

 afforded me some very long-range shooting, and eventually dis- 

 appeared in the distance, leaving two of their number behind. 

 One of these, a good buck, got up and away before the boys 

 could reach it, and it was with great difficulty that we discov- 

 ered the second one in the thick grass. It proved to be a female 

 with graceful, slender horns three inches in circumference about 

 the base, over a foot in length, and four inches from tip to tip. 

 Prom here I noticed two rhinos in the distance, but, stealing 

 lip to within fifty yards of them after a hard tramp, I found 

 that while both were full-grown animals, they possessed com- 

 paratively small horns. 



Another large herd of Granti in the distance now attracted 

 my attention, and by a long-range shot I succeeded in wounding 

 a fine buck, though too far back in the body to bring it down 

 immediately. This necessitated my following it several hours, 

 tinder the hot afternoon sun, before I eventually ran it down 

 and dispatched it. The crippled gazelle would lope along for 

 a long distance, and then lie down until I had almost approached 

 within range, when it would again move on. It was accom- 

 panied by a grewsome flock of four or five vultures which, 

 realizing that the end of the wounded animal was near, flapped 

 slowly along with it while it was in motion, and when it lay 

 down they lighted on the baked ground several yards distant 

 until it resumed its flight. While we were skinning and cutting 

 up the gazelle, these large birds peered down at us through the 

 thorny foliage of an acacia with an expectant look in their 

 beady black eyes, but we left little for them, as we had a large 

 and hungry following in camp to feed. The measurements of 

 the horns of the buck were as follows: right horn — length, 

 twenty- two inches; circumference at base, eight inches; left 

 liom — length, twenty-two inches; circumference at base, seven 



