168 VARIETY OF BUSH GAME. 



of the forest, a feast for wolves and jackals. With a bullet- 

 wound they rarely travel far, if hit anywhere about the 

 shoulder. 



Really one never tires of the forest-life, there is plea- 

 sure in even walking through its paths, made as they are 

 by the African elephantine M'Adam, and merely looking 

 at the trees and shrubs, each and every one of which 

 would be a gem in England. It is a conservatory on a 

 Brobdignagian scale. Then, to a sportsman, there is the 

 excitement : At which shall we have the first shot, a buck 

 or an elephant, a buffalo or a guinea-fowl ? or shall we 

 walk the whole day and see nothing but a poisonous 

 snake, wriggling away in the dead leaves? There is 

 always something here to be seen that is interesting from 

 viewing it in its natural state. The manis is frequently 

 found in the bush ; lots of little creatures, like weasels, 

 and birds of most brilliant plumage. There may be no 

 accounting for taste, but I would rather walk through an 

 African forest than either up Cheapside, or even Regent 

 Street : the one is all real and true, the other artificial 

 and in great part false, if we are to believe the chemical 

 tests by which most of our groceries have so lately been 

 exposed. 



Twice in the Natal bush, and once across the Umganie, 

 I killed three bucks in one day. When across the 

 Umganie, I shot the first as he was in the open ground, 

 and knocked him over with a bullet as he was running; 

 the other two I killed in the bush. Monyoni's brother 

 was with me, and it was hard work carrying the venison 

 home. A curious thing happened with one of the 



