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that lie liad seen three hippopotami down the river, which 
he had closely followed instead of cutting off corners as 
we had done. Saved my koodoo's head and cleaned it. 
Passed through a large tract of burnt country to-day. 
August ^Ist. Sunday, After breakfast I strolled down 
with Dubois and La Mule to the place where he had seen 
the hippos, but they did not show, though we did all we 
could to attract their attention and stir them up, by 
sticking up a handkerchief on a high stick, throwing 
stones into the pool, and setting the reeds on fire ; but 
they were either obstinate or absent. A very windy day, 
and the dust in camp rather unpleasant, as it would blow 
over our food and everything else. E. has taken to 
making a composition of dough called by courtesy a bun, 
and very good they are, though no milk or sugar, or 
baking apparatus ; and I often ask if there is a bun handy 
in the night when I wake up and feel peckish, to E.'s 
great amusement. We have put up twenty-four hours' 
walking this week, not counting Sunday, which is pretty 
good considering we are not fresh and have done a good 
bit of hunting, &c. ; besides, the ground takes it out of 
one so, with the rocks and steep ravines to clamber up and 
down nearly every ten minutes. Started off the hunter 
Baichi, or Bargee, as I called him, with four men carrying 
heads and anything we didn't want, with instructions to 
hurry on to the wagons and tell Christian to bring any 
horses there were left to the top of the pass, and also some 
mealies for the men, as we guessed they would probably 
go short the last day or two under the Berg. Went on a 
little way late in the afternoon to break the long march 
we had settled to do next day. 
September \st. ' ^ Partridge shooting begins, ' ' and makes 
one think of the difference between coming back after a 
hard day's walking at home to a good dinner and 
comfortable bed, and out here to bad grub and the ground 
G 
