18 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



found a black rhinoceros which I wounded on the 31s1 

 of August. The sun was powerful throughout the day , 

 the months of winter were gone by, and summer was 

 rapidly advancing. The trees were budding and put- 

 ting forth leaves, which loaded the passing breeze with 

 a sweet and balmy fragrance. In low-lying districts 

 the young grass had already commenced to shoot forth 

 ^ts tender blades, and all nature seemed to pant for the 

 grateful rains to robe herself in her mantle of summer 

 vc'rdure. 



[n the evening I laved in the fountain my sunburned 

 eyes, which were sore and irritated from the constant 

 strain necessarily concomitant on spooring ; after which 

 I sat for a long time silently contemplating the tran- 

 quil scene. As the sun went down, the number of the 

 feathered tribe that visited the fountains was truly sur- 

 prising : turtle-doves, and extremely small, long-tailed 

 pigeons, were most abundant. These kept collecting 

 from every side, uttering their gentle notes, till the 

 trees and bushes around the glade were thickly covered 

 with them. I also observed four distinct varieties of 

 partridge ; and Guinea-fowls attended in flocks of from 

 twenty to sixty. On the 4th, having few followers, I 

 was occupied from early dawn until the sun was under 

 in cleaning the skull and hewing out the tusks of my 

 bull elephant, and on the following day I returned to 

 camp with a party of Bakalahari bearing them upon 

 their shoulders. On the 6th I took the field with about 

 forty natives, and held through the forest in a south- 

 easterly direction. Falling r\ with two white rhinoce ■ 

 roses, one of which carried an unusually long horn, I 

 was induced to give her chase, and by hard riding I 

 soon overtook and finished her with four shots behind 

 the shoulder. 



