318 



ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



of a huge bull elephant, and, having follovired it a short 

 distance through the verdant forest, we started the old 

 fellow, but no man saw him. The great body of the 

 natives never would be quiet, and ever pressed upon 

 the spooring party, notwithstanding my remonstrances. 

 One native heard him, but said he thought it was a rhi- 

 noceros. In half a minute, however, we discovered our 

 mistake, and there ensued a general rush upon the 

 spoor, at a pace which must shortly have overtaken 

 him, for he had not started in great alarm. Whistling 

 to my dogs, they took up the scent and went ahead ; 

 but as I galloped after them, expecting every instant 

 to behold the elephant, whose spoor I now saw beneath 

 my horse's feet, an unlucky troop of camelopards dash- 

 ed across our path, and away went all the dogs, leaving 

 me in the lurch just as I was upon the elephant. The 

 trackers, however, soon came up, and we again held 

 briskly on, but had not proceeded far when we entered 

 upon ground so covered with fresh footmarks that the 

 trackers in their haste overran the spoor we followed, 

 and a long check was the result. Here, to add to my 

 annoyance, another large herd of camelopards came 

 cantering up the wind, and dashed away before us, to 

 spread further alarm. Old Mutchuisho now came up 

 in a state of intense excitement, his watery eyes fixed 

 upon the ground, and his tongue goin^ like perpetual 

 motion. He blew up the trackers right and left, who 

 seemed to quail before his menacing aspect, and re- 

 doubled their energies in the doubtful pursuit. Pres- 

 ently one of these, loudly smacking his " nether end," 

 intimated that he had hit off the proper spoor. This 

 peculiar signal, I remarked, was used by the Bechuanas 

 to warn one another on various occasions. In spoor- 

 ing game it was invariably praoticed ; and when a line 



