IN THE KOWIE BUSH 163 



ing 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 im- 

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

 Kowie bush, but very hard and tiring work a constant strug- 

 gling 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 particularly towards even- 

 ing, 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 ruthlessly 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 without first killing or 

 seriously maiming some of their pursuers, and are then shot 

 by the farmer. The old males are formidable antagonists, and 

 many of our dogs bore long and ugly scars, the result of former 

 battles with the baboon tribe. As no buffaloes were thought to 

 be in the vicinity, and as it was an impossibility to get the dogs 

 away or to stop their furious barking, permission had to be given 

 to kill some of the baboons, as the only way out of the difficulty. 

 The hungry dogs, having vented their rage on their fallen enemy, 

 did not at all disdain to make a meal of him. 



The tracker's opinion that no buffaloes were near proved false, 

 for hardly had we taken up the spoor again when it became 

 evident that a herd had been near when we unfortunately came 

 upon the baboons. The spoor became fresher and fresher as the 

 animals had moved rapidly away, but it was only after some 

 hours' walking at our best pace that one of the dogs gave 

 tongue. Away the whole pack rushed, and we after it, running 



