SPORT ON THE GUASO MARU 



That night my gun-bearer, who had spent the day in search- 

 ing for a pair of field-glasses which I had lost in the buffalo- 

 hunt of the previous day, reported having seen fresh signs of 

 these animals in the bush. Early next morning I accordingly 

 started on another buffalo-hunt, but meeting a pair of rhinos 

 at the edge of the bush I killed the cow, which had the better 

 horns of the two. Not having enough men with me to turn 

 over the carcass of this beast in order to skin the head, I was 

 obliged to send to camp for more men, which caused a long 

 delay and prevented my hunting farther in the bush. It 

 was after two o'clock in the afternoon when we started 

 with the head toward camp, and as we left the carcass, 

 which was hidden in a thicket, not a vulture had yet ap- 

 peared in the sky. 



As we had heard lions roaring regularly at night in this 

 vicinity, I had hopes of surprising some of these felines feeding 

 at the carcass at dawn the next morning if the vultures had 

 not found and finished it by that time. I arose before day- 

 light, had breakfast by candle-light, and started through the 

 dew-covered grass toward the scene as the first rays of the sun 

 were lighting up the eastern sky. On arriving at the spot in 

 the bush I found every tree within hundreds of feet loaded 

 down with buzzards, vultures, and marabout storks. As 1 

 approached the carcass a cloud of these large brown birds 

 flapped up, and numerous jackals slunk away from the cleanly 

 picked bones of the rhinoceros. 



Much disgusted, we continued into the bush, and soon found 

 the fresh tracks of a small herd of buffalo, which included one 

 large bull. Except in marshy places or deep sand, such heavy 

 animals as eland or buffalo leave surprisingly little sign, and 

 following these buffalo tracks in the short grass w^as slow and 

 tedious work. However, we stuck to them until well on in the 

 afternoon, and discovering that they were heading for a distant 

 blue range of hills, we turned wearily campward. 



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