A Breath from the Veldt 



M3 



But luck was against us ; the animal had retreated to some stony ground, and 

 we lost it irrevocably. 



All that afternoon we journeyed on and struck a fresh waggon spoor, which 

 we knew must lead to the Malala fountain, where the rhinoceros had drunk the 

 previous year. But here again disappointment awaited us. We were just a 

 week too late ; for had the rhinoceros been there, these hunters in front would 



FIRST SPRING OF A KOODOO BULL AS HE STARTS TO RUN 



assuredly have got him. And now a strange sight met our eyes — strange, 

 I fancy, even in Africa, for Van Staden had never witnessed a similar spectacle. 

 A big locust cloud had alighted that afternoon, but the shelterless soil had 

 proved even too hot for them, the earth being as hard as a brick and so hot that 

 the hand could not be held on it. The locusts had therefore flown for refuge 

 to the scattered trees, and here — clinging to the shady sides of the branches — 

 they were massed five and six deep, giving the trees a lop-sided appearance, as 

 if borne down in one direction with a load of bright green lichen. It was one 



