84 
SOMALILAND 
close, and had not until now seen him ! So marvellously 
does the skin of this animal blend with the colour of its 
surroundings. I was so taken aback with surprise that I 
fired hurriedly, hitting him too low down, between the fore- 
legs, when he went off at a lumbering gallop. With the 
second barrel I knocked him over. 
What struck me most, on seeing my first zebra lying 
dead before me, was the beautiful colouring and gigantic 
proportions of the broad ears, rounded at the tops, the 
huge girth of the animal and the thick short legs. Grevy’s 
zebra is truly a magnificent animal, and must not be con- 
founded with Burchell’s zebra seen in circuses at home. 
The latter animal is a miserable-looking little thing in 
comparison. 
Leaving the men to finish skinning the animal, we 
proceeded until we reached some rising ground to the 
south ; below this small hill stretched ten miles of trees 
away to the Nagob hills. Here and there were large grassy 
open places, some about two miles long by half a mile broad. 
It was to the other side of one of these open plains that 
the wells lay to which we were to wend our way. On 
descending the ground altered. Instead of the red sand, 
the colour of the earth was yellowish. Instead of high, 
monument-like ant-hills, at every 20 yards or so were 
to be seen dome-shaped ant-hills of a dirty-yellow colour. 
The grass here was scanty and dried up, and scattered 
over the ground was a green plant which looked like a 
young cabbage. 
Suddenly out of the bushes ran the first wild wart hog 
I had ever seen, with his tail cocked up straight in the air, 
looking a most ridiculous object. I was out of the saddle 
in a moment, and seizing my rifle (even if I had had a 
spear, the bush was too thick for riding), I crawled to a 
bush, from which I could make out two pigs partly hidden 
in the bushes. Bang 1 The bullet ploughed up the dust 
just before it reached him. Mr. Pig had just saved his 
bacon ! At length we reached the well, just in time to see 
