426 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
ing to a height of many feet gray funnels of ashes and 
withered leaves. In places the coarse grass had half re¬ 
sisted the flames, and rose above our heads. Here and 
there bleached skulls of elephant and rhino, long dead, 
showed white against the charred surface of the soil. Every¬ 
where, crossing and recrossing one another, were game 
trails, some slightly marked, others broad and hard, and 
beaten deep into the soil by the feet of the giant creatures 
that had trodden them for ages. The elephants had been 
the chief road makers; but the rhinoceros had travelled 
their trails, and also buffalo and buck. 
There were elephant about, but only cows and calves, 
and an occasional bull with very small tusks. Of rhinoceros, 
all square-mouthed, we saw nine, none carrying horns which 
made them worth shooting. The first one I saw was in 
long grass. My attention was attracted by a row of white 
objects moving at some speed through the top of the grass. 
It took a second look before I made out that they were 
cow herons perched on the back of a rhino. This proved 
to be a bull, which joined a cow and a calf. None had 
decent horns, and we plodded on. Soon we came to the 
trail of two others, and after a couple of miles’ tracking 
Kongoni pointed to two gray bulks lying down under a tree. 
I walked cautiously to within thirty yards. They heard 
something, and up rose the two pig-like blinking creatures, 
who gradually became aware of my presence, and re¬ 
treated a few steps at a time, dull curiosity continually over¬ 
coming an uneasiness which never grew into fear. Toss¬ 
ing their stumpy-horned heads, and twisting their tails 
into tight knots, they ambled briskly from side to side, 
and were ten minutes in getting to a distance of a hundred 
