18 
HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
We had a little "day out" on , he writes. 
which, though we were unsuccessful in getting 
at our nimble friend the Askari, was highly en- 
tertaining, if rather strenuous. We were out 
for twenty hours., in which time we were only 
three hours off our saddles, the first thirteen being 
a straight trek. We got into some awfully in- 
teresting country, and struck a beautiful river 
bordered by tall trees and a thick undergrowth 
clothing the high banks. 
You cannot imagine what this meant to us, 
and how refreshing it was, not only to the body, 
but to the eye. We saw heaps of game. I got 
quite close to a giraffe which was coming straight 
towards us. I was simply spell-bound, and all 
thoughts of lurking Askaris were thrown to the 
winds. He looked like a huge ladder with legs, 
and came along quietly nibbling the tops of the 
trees; then he saw us, and turned just as quietly 
and ambled off. 
HUNTER'S PARADISE. 
On the journey home a great old rhino 
trotted across about 200 yards in front of the 
column, making, as it appeared to be, for one of 
our outriders, who, as you can imagine, wasn't 
too bucked about it ! However, he followed a 
good military maxim and "took cover," mean- 
while somebody in front (it may have been our 
colonel) let Mr. Rhino, have it with two shots, 
which sent him ambling off into the bush. 
The game here is simply amazing. The 
other day on patrol we saw eland, koodoo, haart- 
beeste, lynx, and wild ostrich, to say nothing of 
smaller buck. This, of course, is what is known 
as Huntsman's Paradise, and famous for lions. 
How I should love to spend a few weeks with two 
or three nice fellows and a good pony ! 
We are quite near Kilimanjaro, but have not 
seen it or some days on account of the cloudy 
weather. We saw it by moonlight the other 
night. It was most beautiful. 
We hear no war news, and every one is 
keenly anxious to get a paptr and find out what 
is and what isn't. I managed to find an old 
London daily newspaper of February, 191., and 
simply devoured it. 
As to our domgs, we've been pretty busy of 
late, and when we go- "out" it means hard trek- 
king. We got among the Askaris the other morn- 
ing on patrol. No. 1 and No. 2 troops were 
advance guard, and we'd just got through a dense 
thorn scrub into an open strip when we halted 
and dismounted. I was just lighting my pipe 
when ping, ping, came the bullets out of he bush 
about 250 yards to our front. 
EXCITING TIMES. 
Dave's horse amongst them and mine refused 
to lei me get near him, and fooled about with me 
right in the open (bullets all round, very nice!). 
I eventually got on, but found myself separated 
from my own troop, so gave a hand in taking 
back the horses to No. 1, who had got down to 
it properly and were returning the fire with in- 
terest. We got back to the main body. Luckily 
no one was hurt, thanks to their rotten shooting. 
One horse was hit and one man had his bayonet 
smashed in half by a bullet. 
T.B. had an exciting experience. His horse 
stampeded at the beginnings so he cut for the 
bush, where he struck two other fellows who had 
missed the troop, so T.B. got up behind one of 
them and off they set for the rendezvous with a 
good deal of difference of opinion as to the direc- 
tion. Ultimately they came out of the bush and 
found themselves behind a German outpost. 
They skedaddled back and set off in an oppo- 
site direction. Here they ran into a rhino, who 
followed them for about a mile. 
They were afraid to fire for fear of disclos- 
ing their position so naturally felt somewhat 
alarmed. They trekked and trekked as rapidly 
as they could, the poor horses being so fagged 
one man had to take turns at trotting. 
Then they were surrounded by wild dogs 
and had to fire two shots into them to scare them 
off. Eventually they found they had got beyond 
our camp some miles, and had to turn back, but 
as it was dark they were afraid to approach for 
fear of our picket firing on them, so they just 
flopped down under a tree, fagged out, with one 
man on the watch for lions. 
Luckily our column passed quite close to 
them, and we picked them up. Poor old Trevor 
was dead to the world, and, in fact, we yere all 
fearfully tired. 
KILIMANJARO. 
Yesterday I was picked to go out with eleven 
others. This was quite an honour, and as 
"Gilly" was the non-com., we rode together. 
This was quite enjoyable, especially as being 
such a small body we got to close quarters with 
heaps of big game. A herd of giraffe I shall never 
forget. We got within 150 yards of them; a 
great bull like some prehistoric animal, tiny little 
ones like pocket editions. 
Eland we saw in hundreds, and G. and I 
stalked and got within fifty yards of amagnifi- 
cent cow. She was simply paralysed with Fear 
and stood and stared at us for about a minute, 
then whizzed round and cleared a big bush in one 
bound. 
Gemsbok, Grant's gazelle (much like our 
springbok), ostrich, wild pig, and an old lady 
rhino with her child, grazing among a lot of 
zebra; and in the distance Kilimanjaro standing 
up in the shimmering heat waves covered with 
snow. 
