26 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



I did not hunt much more here as we had already a large 

 quantity of meat drying, and I wanted to get back to Laiju 

 and lay my plans for a trip in another direction in quest of 

 elephants. I shot one or two oryx, being anxious to get a 

 finer specimen of this handsome, long-horned antelope, and a 

 few of the smaller kinds. One oryx which I had hit rather 

 low ran some distance, and when we finally came up with him 

 after following the spoor showed fight, so that though already 

 done it was necessary to use another cartridge to finish him. 

 It is, of course, well known that it is very dangerous to lay hold 

 of a wounded oryx or go within reach of its sharp, sweeping 

 horns, and I have before experienced its dexterity with these 

 formidable weapons ; but I do not remember to have noticed 

 its angry voice under such circumstances : this one fairly 

 growled when we went near it. 



The neighbourhood of which I have been writing is quite 

 an ideal game country, and very pleasant to camp and to shoot 

 in. The drawback is the difficulty of getting there ; otherwise 

 a very delightful time might be spent by a small party in the 

 district. My camp there was by a little lakelet formed by the 

 stream — a charming spot — my tent pitched under a spreading 

 tree on the very water's edge. One day I shot a huge barber 

 (as they are called in South Africa) in this pool with my 

 rook rifle. I was sitting having my meal under the shade 

 of the tree outside the tent door, and it came feeling about 

 after scraps I threw in on the surface of the water close to the 

 bank above which I sat, and I put the little bullet right through 

 the centre of its nose — or rather where the nose ought to be in 

 its wide ugly head — killing it instantly, to the delight of my 

 Swahili retainers (to whom fish never comes amiss). 



The varieties of game to be found in this district, not of 

 course all in precisely the same locality, but in the neighbourhood 

 round about, are : — rhinoceros, giraffe, oryx, waterbuck, lesser 

 koodoo. Grant's gazelle, Waller's gazelle, impala, a few Coke's 

 hartebeeste and the tiny " paa " (Kirkii) ; zebra of two kinds, 



