32 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



several times, of course always during moonlight nights, I never 

 saw anything worth shooting at, and, disgusted, eventually pre- 

 ferred to spend my nights in bed. The sport, if, indeed, it 

 deserves that name, seemed never to my liking. I was, how- 

 ever, very anxious to shoot a lion, so, as I never could find one 

 by looking for him in his own jungles, I hoped to be more 

 successful by waiting for him to come to me. G. was more 

 fortunate ; he saw several lions, and killed an elephant while 

 sitting out at one of these water-holes at night. Yet this watch- 

 ing at night in the tropics has a very great charm. The cloud- 

 less, starry sky and nowhere seem the stars so large, or are 

 they so bright as in the tropics ; the river-bed lighted up as 

 brilliantly as by day almost by the radiant silvery moon, except 

 where sharply defined and grotesque shadows are thrown across 

 it by some immense mass of granite cropping up here and there, 

 or by the dense fringe of jungle on the bank, beyond the outline 

 of which, perhaps, stretch the fantastically grown branches of 

 some huge baobab, clearly depicted on the almost snowy sand, 

 like the uncanny arms of some giant octopus ; while the jungle 

 opposite is strongly illuminated by the rays of the powerful moon, 

 so that almost every leaf becomes visible and stands out distinct 

 from the darker shadows beyond. 



All nature is hushed and silent, except when some night-bird 

 flies past, uttering his shrill note, or some wandering hyena or 

 jackal in search of water or food comes trotting along, apparently 

 terrified by his own shadow. It is a very enjoyable scene ; one 

 is always on the qui vive, always longingly expecting the game 

 to appear, speculating upon what it will be,whence it will come, 

 if alone ; whether it will, when it does come, present a fair shot, 

 if that shot will really kill, &c., &c., and so on, until the eye, 

 disappointed by not seeing anything worthy of powder and lead, 

 at last refuses to keep open any longer ; then the next in turn is 

 aroused to take his watch, and with rifles within easy reach one 

 is soon in the land of dreams. My slumbers were always undis- 

 turbed ; nothing ever came, as verified by the want of spoor in 

 the soft sand next morning, so I always returned disappointed to 

 camp. Breakfast followed, then boot and saddle, and so off for 

 another day in the jungle. 



