CURIOUS MOON EFFECT 87 
cowardly animals made off at once, with their tails between 
their legs. 
After watching the sun set, I turned my chair to the right 
about to see the full moon, like a huge golden sovereign, 
slowly peep over the range of hills in the east. I soon 
witnessed what appeared to me a very singular phenomenon. 
There appeared on the left-hand side of the circumference of 
the moon, as it were, a huge black crack, penetrating far into 
the centre of the disc. This suddenly vanished, and another 
large black crack appeared lower down, completing a segment 
of the circle. This likewise vanished in a few seconds. I 
may add that at the time the whole sky was perfectly clear 
of clouds. Below is a sketch of the moon as she appeared 
during those few seconds. 
The name of this place was Bun Feroli (the Zebra 
Plain). 
Upon and around this plain game simply swarmed, and 
I had great sport, shooting one day four oryx, not a pound 
of the meat of which was wasted. 
One morning I went to the well to look at the tracks, and 
found that a rhinoceros had drunk there the night before. 
His spoor led hack again, across the plain, towards my 
camp. We followed that spoor from 5 a.m., across sandy 
ground, over stony ground, through thin bush, up a steep 
rocky hill, and down into an open plain on the other side, 
until 8 a.m., when, on going through some thick bushes, he 
got our wind, as he was lying down, and, jumping up, ran 
fast to my right. I fired the elephant rifle at him as he 
dashed past ; but although he stumbled as I fired, and 
