176 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
keeps. Near this camp, there was a herd almost always 
to be found somewhere near the southern end of a big hill 
two miles east of us; while a solitary bull was invariably 
seen around the base of a small hill a couple of miles south¬ 
west of us. The latter was usually in the company of a 
mixed herd of Roberts’ and Thomson’s gazelles. Here, 
as everywhere, we found the different species of game as¬ 
sociating freely with one another. One little party inter¬ 
ested us much. It consisted of two Roberts’ bucks, two 
Roberts’ does, and one Thomson’s doe, which was evi¬ 
dently a maitresse femme, of strongly individualized char¬ 
acter. The four big gazelles had completely surrendered 
their judgment to that of the little tommy doe. She was the 
acknowledged leader; when she started they started and 
followed in whatever direction she led; when she stopped 
they stopped; if she found a given piece of pasture good, 
upon it they grazed contentedly. Around this camp the topi 
were as common as hartebeest; they might be found singly, 
or in small parties, perhaps merely of a bull, a cow, and a 
calf; or they might be mixed with zebra, wildebeest, and 
hartebeest. Like the hartebeest, but less frequently, they 
would mount ant-hills to get a better look over the country. 
The wildebeest were extraordinarily tenacious of life, and the 
hartebeest and topi only less so. After wounded individ¬ 
uals of all three kinds I more than once had sharp runs on 
horseback. On one occasion I wounded a wildebeest bull 
a couple of miles from camp; I was riding my zebra-shaped 
brown pony, who galloped well; and after a sharp run 
through the bush I overhauled the wildebeest; but when I 
jumped off, the pony bolted for camp, and as he disap¬ 
peared in one direction my game disappeared in the other. 
