I 12 
SOMALILAND 
track, now being obliged to make a detour to get round an 
impossible precipice. 
After an hour of this sort of thing my throat became 
parched, and my water-bottle was by now miles away 
behind. The sun came out strong, and I longed at that 
moment to be following red-deer in a country where one 
treads on water at every step. We were still far from the 
bottom of the huge nullah, where I saw a ^ tug ’ (dried-up 
river-bed) wending its way through the hills. A river-bed ; 
but how far should we have to dm to find water ? We had 
O 
now lost the blood spoor, and shouted to the men above us 
for the water-bottle. Not a sound broke the stillness after 
the echo had died away in the valley, Down and down 
we went on recovering the blood track. Soon after there 
was a rushing of loose stones below us. We raced down 
the precipices, but saw nothing among the thick bushes and 
huge boulders. 
We next came upon a great quantity of clotted blood, 
and knew that we must see the game again ere we reached 
the bottom. Creeping, crawling, sliding, and slipping, we 
slowly wended our way down the steep mountain-side 
until we came to a place where the koodoo had evidently 
fallen. On tip-toe we crept on, when up jumped the ante- 
lope out of some cactus bushes, and immediately disappeared 
again amid a rumble of stones. I was nearly played out, 
and fell twice on the uneven ground in quick succession. I 
was obliged to stop and take a breather. By this time we 
were within 500 yards of the bottom, having come all the 
way down in a slanting direction. 
On restarting more blood became apparent, and at last 
I caught sight of the beautiful animaFs head crouching 
among the rocks facing us. My shikari in his excitement 
fired my rifle before I could stop him, and the bullet whizzed 
over the animaFs horns ; but the poor beast was now too 
done to get up, and, seizing the rifle, I put a merciful bullet 
through its neck. What a truly magnificent animal he 
was 1 His great spiral horns measured 42 inches in a 
