102 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



was a great smoker, and very keen, thanks probably 

 to visions of glorious feasts on buffalo steaks and 

 other dainties. 



A visit was first paid to some water-holes, far away 

 in the bush, to ascertain whether they had lately been 

 visited for drinking purposes or to roll in, and having 

 found a spoor more fresh and promising than others, we 

 followed it. Rain was badly wanted, there had been 

 none for many a day ; the ground was very hard, and 

 tracking most difficult. New spoor almost impossible to 

 tell from old. It is no easy task to get through the 

 Kowie bush, but very hard and tiring work a constant 

 struggling up the steep hills and climbing down again, 

 a perpetual stooping and creeping under the low bushes 

 and stumbling over a tangle of monkey -ladders and 

 other creepers. At one moment one's hat is knocked 

 off, the next one's clothes securely caught and held 

 by the ever-present and tiresome thorns, the disen- 

 tangling costing many scratches ; while the hot, musty, 

 and close atmosphere in the bush adds its full quota 

 towards the trial of temper and endurance, more par- 

 ticularly towards evening, when, tired after a long 

 day's tramp, the chance of coming up with the buffalo 

 has become very faint. After following the difficult 

 spoor for hours up and down hill, the sharp bark of 

 the great baboon was heard, and off rushed the whole 

 pack, making noise enough to scare all game for miles 

 around. These baboons are a great curse to the 

 buffalo -hunter, and more so to the farmer, who ruth- 

 lessly destroys them wherever and whenever found. 

 They travel for miles in search of cultivated land, eat 

 all they can of the crop, and destroy the remainder. 

 Chased by the dogs, they run up trees, not always 



