The Cape Buffalo i Q $ 



been driven from the neighbourhood of Kazungula, the trading station at 

 the junction of the Chobi and the Zambesi, I still found them in immense 

 numbers a little farther up the course of the former river. In 1879 I was 

 hunting farther up the Chobi, beyond the Sunta outlet, and also crossed 

 the various channels and reed-beds through which this river runs, and 

 hunted along its northern bank in the neighbourhood of Linyanti, and 

 everywhere met with buffaloes in surprising numbers. I also found 

 these animals plentiful along the Machabi River (an outlet of the Oka- 

 vango), as well as in the neighbourhood of the great reed-bed in which 

 the Mababi River loses itself. Up to 1878 buffaloes were also numerous 

 along the Botletlie River near Lake Ngami, but in that year they were 

 all killed or driven away north by the emigrant Boers on their way 

 to Ovampoland. From 1879 to 1891, though my wanderings often 

 took me into parts of the country lying between the high plateau of 

 Mashunaland and the Zambesi River, where buffaloes were fairly numerous, 

 I did not again meet with these animals in very large numbers until I 

 visited the valley of the Pungwe for the first time in the latter year, 

 and again in 1892. During these two seasons I once more found 

 myself in a district where buffaloes were still to be seen almost daily 

 in large herds. However, they were not as numerous as these animals 

 once used to be along the Chobi, nor do I believe that God's cattle, as 

 the natives often call the buffaloes, have ever been seen in greater 

 numbers in any part of the African continent than they had attained 

 along both banks of the Chobi River during the decade which succeeded 

 the overthrow and extermination of the Makololo nation by the Barotsi 

 under their chief Sipopo. 



Buffaloes calve during January, February, and March, some months 

 later than any of the antelopes living in the same country with them. 

 The calves are reddish brown in colour when newly born, but, as they 

 grow, the reddish tinge gradually disappears, and they become dunnish 



