258 ELEPHANT FOUNTAIN. [chap. ix. 



nicked the skin of one deeply, yet as he struck out 

 both with his horns and heels when he did so, it was 

 too dangerous to continue the attempt. In despair, he 

 took his rifle-barrel (which was a common thick thing) 

 from the stock, and kept flinging it at the giraffe's head 

 like a knob-kerrie, and at length the beast dropped. 

 In the morning the other one had walked away ; and 

 though he was tracked a couple of miles, yet he could 

 not be found. We jerked the giraffe, that is, cut the 

 flesh that we did not eat into strips, and dried them in 

 the sun. The skin was of great service to us, as our 

 shoes were worn out, and wanted new soles. It is 

 strange to see in how small a compass the meat of the 

 whole animal packs up when it is dried. 



Something was shot every day till we came to 

 Kurrikoop, and there we slept out by the water. 

 A buffalo, a gnu, five zebras, two hartebeests, and three 

 roebucks were "bagged" in two nights. The natives 

 of the place had a grand feast : and so had we. 



At Elephant Fountain we found Amiral, and about 

 forty men, who had just arrived there, en route for a 

 shooting excursion to the east. They take their 

 waggons with them for some days, and then make an 

 encampment, whence they journey short distances on 

 ride-oxen, and shoot what they can, bringing the meat 

 back jerked to the waggon. It was delightful to hear 

 people talk familiarly of the rhinoceros as an every- day 

 kind of game, and we longed for a raid upon them. 

 I had not yet seen a single rhinoceros. One was shot 

 by Andersson and Hans when they went down to 

 the bay, but I was not then present. On the last 



