496 
THE TEOPICAL AGEICULTUEIST. [Jan. 1, 1900. 
but too late, of course. After about five 
riiinules' waiting one solitary heart ap))ears and 
bans; goes a bullet into his eye; down goes my 
game again only to reappear; this time done 
for, floundering heels overhead. "Hit this time" 
shouts the nigger: " JSyanis, nyania " (beef, Le?f) 
and the greatest excitement prevails amongst my 
men. I was meantime not idle, for 1 charged 
and fired, as fast as I could, altogether eight 
shots, and still the beast went on turning over 
and over ; for about 10 minutes this performance 
•\\ent on, till the pangs of death overtook the 
monster and lie sank to the bottom to rise no 
more. Although I waited fully two hours, I never 
saw the other two again. How long they can 
remain under water I cannot say, but the natives 
say they can sleep lying on the bottom of a pool 
like the " crocks." 
Next morning at daybreak all were astir and 
we soon made tracks for the river to find at 
the bottom of the pool, floating against the rapids 
in shallow water, the carcass of our hippo : 
the huge beast looked in the distance like 
a floating whale. All hands were soon at work, 
skinning and cutting up, great sport going on 
amongst the willing workers at this job, much to 
tue amusement of onlookers who had congregated 
from the near villages on the prospect of a piece 
of meat, for there is nothing the African loves or 
worships more than " Nyama." No matter what 
the quality is, the savage eagerly seizes any 
scrap as the work progresses, skewers it on a stick 
and roasts it very slightly before a fire or on the 
smoke and ashes, tearing it to pieces with his 
horney fingers and devouring it with the greatest 
relish. The whole day was occupied skinning, 
butchering;and despatching loads of meat to friends 
and relations in the villages. By evening there 
was hardly a vestige left except 
MY TEOPHY 
— the head which was slung onapole anddespatched 
to the estate. Next time 1 go hippo shoot- 
ing, I shall try what efTect a dynamite cartridge 
lias, thrown into the pool, to rouse the sleeping 
hippo who won't rise when wanted to. At day 
light next morning all were active. Byway of 
experiment I tried a stick of hippo meat, but 
found it too rank in flavour, stringy and porky 
for my taste. We struck camp and ma~ched in the 
same direction as yesterday. After two hours' tramp 
through the forest, — something like your 
Park country, but instead of the short lawn grass 
so easy to walk upon, we have a burnt off 
guinea grass field intermixed with scrub, — we got 
into a long dambo, that is a damp hollow with 
short tufty grass like the Uva Patanas. 
ANTELOPK, 
In the distance, about half a mile off, a herd of 
"sable" were visible. Skirting along the edge of the 
forest, I got to within 100 yards, when I could 
see they were on the alert fidgeting about all in 
a heap with the leaders of the herd always facing 
me. No delay now, my only chance, and bang 
right into the finest bull's chest ; a stampede, of 
course, resulted upon the report of the rifle and 
there was just time for another couple of shots 
before they were out of sight. Upon examination 
of the spoor, we found two were wounded. 
A party of men started on the track of each. I 
followed the biggest and had not gone far, before I 
heard a grunt or a lierce snorting noise : a 
plunge forward and out bounded my wounded 
bull, full in view, liead erect, with magnificent 
hOiw sweeping over his majestic neck. One 
bullet well forward on the shoulder-blade laid him 
low with a forward bound. The other "sable" was 
tracked for a long distance, but the wound must 
have ouly been a flesh one for wo never came up 
to the lieiist; so we gave up the hunt and camped 
near the water about a quarter of a mile 
distant. 
TIIK SABLE ANTELOPE 
is in my opinion the handsomest buck we have 
in Nyassaland: some may fancy the more rare 
Kudu, but ihere are so few liere and only usu- 
ally individual bucks to be found, that I should 
think they are emigrants from the large river or 
lake region. Upon having a look round next 
morning, I discoveieil spoor of Zebrn, Hartbeest 
and other game, so I decided to make a stay at 
my present camp. Durincra lour in the evening I 
suddenly rounded a corner upon about 20 zebras 
and bagged one with a bullet in the neck and an- 
other went otf badly woundeil, for I could see he 
was not able to keep u|) with tlie herd but forged 
ahead very lei.-ure.'y at about 100 yards in the 
rear. My men gave chase and I soon fol- 
lowed. After tracking for about half-a-mile, one 
ot my men pointed out the wounded beauty 
standing behind a rock doing a bit of an 
amble on all fours. It was such an amusing per- 
formance that I hesitated about firing till my 
feelings got tlie better of n?e, so I put him out 
of pain with a bullet in the neck. I found he 
was sliot before through the stomach. It always 
seems to me a shame to shoot such "pretty harm- 
less, and might be useful creatures ; but the skins 
make a handsome trophy when set up in a 
museum. This was my sole reason for shooting 
the two which fell to my rifle on this occasion. 
I am sure the zebra could be easily kraaled, 
and tamed to be a useful and docile beast of 
burden to mankind. They are to be found in 
large herds all over Nyassaland. 
The following* two days were occupied tracking 
a herd of buffaloes and four elephants which 
passed through the country : the latter I was 
very anxious to get a shot at, but I could 
not come up on them ; they seemed to 
travel at a great rate and evidently on 
the march to some other part of the 
country. After a trudge of some 10 to 15 miles 
I returned dead beat. 
Next day I had better luck and managed to 
knock over 
A WART HOa 
— not by any means common game in these pa^ts. 
Tlie other pig is common enough and a very des- 
tructive brute in native gardens, but neitlier is 
so numerous in Africa, as the wild pig of ( eylon 
is in the lowcoun try about the tanks, being only 
found in pairs or at the most in herds of three 
and four. I have never seen more than four to- 
gether. 
The following two or three days I had no 
luck although 1 saw and fired at some hart- 
beests, so I decided to return, meantime dispatch- 
ing a man for my Machella and men to meet me 
at the Ruo. 
On my way home I shot a Bush-buck and a 
Nyema ; the latter was to my surprise standing 
by the water taking no notice of us. When ex- 
amined I found that he had some severe wounds 
on the neck and head, doubtless clawed by a 
lion, whom hunger had roused to approach too 
near before his noble lord had finished his 
meat. 
