2 26 MATABELE LAND. 
young ones. I have now a good span of fourteen 
and a couple of supernumeraries, and have Hkewise 
bought a heifer, to give me milk. She is of the 
peculiar small breed, less than Alderneys, bred 
by the Mashonas. My dogs are invaluable to 
me. ' Rail ' and ' Rock ' require the greatest care, 
and get it. 
" I shall wonder how you get on amongst the 
Spitzbergen game. If as successful as you must 
have been here, you can claim to count amongst the 
Nimrods. I don't know what to say to your letter 
of June 2d. Of course, if you should come out as 
you propose, it will be very pleasant to meet, and we 
might spend a month or two together in the Zulu 
country before I leave Africa, or, returning via Zan- 
zibar, spend a month or two there, as you suggest. 
I should not care to be very much longer than this, 
and if, after all, you should not come now, we must 
do something else again together in the course of 
time." 
The whole of these letters, above quoted from, 
were despatched to England about the end of 
October. To one of them a postscript was added on 
the 28th, to the effect that the trader, Stoffel Kennedy, 
whose finger, it appears, had had to be amputated on 
returning from the veldt, had just arrived at Tati, 
and that he and Dorehill, the young trader of that 
name, already mentioned in these pages, were in- 
tending to start immediately with two waggons for 
the Zambesi, and wanted Frank Oates to accompany 
them. ** I hardly think, however, that I shall do so," 
