26 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
I did not hunt much more here as we had already a large 
quantity of meat drying, and I wanted to get back to Laiju 
and lay my plans for a trip in another direction in quest of 
elephants. I shot one or two oryx, being anxious to get a 
finer specimen of this handsome, long-horned antelope, and a 
few of the smaller kinds. One oryx which I had hit rather 
low ran some distance, and when we finally came up with him 
after following the spoor showed fight, so that though already 
done it was necessary to use another cartridge to finish him. 
It is, of course, well known that it is very dangerous to lay hold 
of a wounded oryx or go within reach of its sharp, sweeping 
horns, and I have before experienced its dexterity with these 
formidable weapons ; but I do not remember to have noticed 
its angry voice under such circumstances : this one fairly 
growled when we went near it. 
The neighbourhood of which I have been writing is quite 
an ideal game country, and very pleasant to camp and to shoot 
in. The drawback is the difficulty of getting there ; otherwise 
a very delightful time might be spent by a small party in the 
district. My camp there was by a little lakelet formed by the 
stream—a charming spot—my tent pitched under a spreading 
tree on the very water’s edge. One day I shot a huge barber 
(as they are called in South Africa) in this pool with my 
rook rifle. I was sitting having my meal under the shade 
of the tree outside the tent door, and it came feeling about 
after scraps I threw in on the surface of the water close to the 
bank above which I sat, and I put the little bullet right through 
the centre of its nose—or rather where the nose ought to be in 
its wide ugly head—killing it instantly, to the delight of my 
Swahili retainers (to whom fish never comes amiss). 
The varieties of game to be found in this district, not of 
course all in precisely the same locality, but in the neighbourhood 
round about, are :—rhinoceros, giraffe, oryx, waterbuck, lesser 
koodoo, Grant’s gazelle, Waller’s gazelle, impala, a few Coke’s 
hartebeeste and the tiny “ paa ” (Kirkii) ; zebra of two kinds, 
