GAZELLE 
257 
camels being watered, and examining my heads and skins. 
Some beautiful fat ponies came to be watered during the 
day. Night was again rendered hideous by the incessant 
quarrelling. 
We started in the morning for Upper Sheik, in the Gulis 
Range, which we hoped to reach in three days. We 
crossed the big stony plain upon which I had killed Speke’s 
gazelle more than four months before, and saw several lots 
of these beautiful creatures, but they were too shy to allow 
me to get in a shot. All day we were mounting upwards 
from the Toyo Plain, which I could see far behind me. As 
I had now for myself but one sheep and a ‘ goat bullet,’ as 
my boy called my billy goat, to eat between here and 
Berbera, I did my level best to bag a gazelle. Passing' 
over the plain we encountered rough, stony ground, and 
went over small ravines, an ideal place for gerenook, I 
thought. Some of these wily antelopes we saw soon after- 
wards. At last I got within shooting distance of gazelle, 
but unfortunately put up the wrong sight, and the bullet 
went high over it. However, there were plenty more 
about in this thin bush, and a nice male, standing broadside 
on at 250 yards, gave me a chance I couldn’t miss with such 
an accurate weapon. We found a little green tree and 
grass at Cabook, and camped. On restarting, gazelle were 
tamer, and feeding with sheep and goats, making it too 
dangerous to shoot. T spotted one alone, however, which 
fell to my shot, but he proved to be what my boy called 
‘ a small big one,’ ^.c., a small male. After this I passed 
by scores of gazelle which were very tame, but I had now 
enough meat, or I could easily have shot half a dozen. 
We camped at Reget. 
Just as the sun rose next morning we came to the top 
of the rising ground, and beheld the Gulis Range in the 
distance bathed in the red glow. Seeing a male gerenook 
in an unapproachable place, I thought I would try a 
long shot, as I had been shooting so accurately of late. 
I sat down and fired as he stood broadside. The early 
17 
