198 
ON SAFARI 
luck/’ one half-hour of bright moonlight, might have 
changed all and given us what we sought. No such aid 
occurred: it was perhaps kismet once more, and this 
time on the 44 thumbs-down ” side. 
The off-chance offered by the full moon was annihi¬ 
lated when her gentle light—never too clear for night¬ 
shooting—was obscured by murky storm-clouds, and we 
could no more. 
The following are my brother’s impressions of this 
venture :—“ I regret now that we did not spend another 
week or so pushing forward into the Sotik, although 
I admit that, at the time, it seemed a forlorn 
hope. 
44 When one reads of buffalo-shooting in the olden 
days, right out in the open, truly it astonishes one to 
think how astutely the great bovines have adapted their 
habit to modern necessity and developed a secretiveness 
not naturally theirs. 
44 Against this, I had the services of a native tracker 
whose skill in woodcraft was alone worth some sacrifice 
to watch. Through the densest thickets of these tangled 
forests wherein buffalo now spend the livelong day, he 
led me again and again right into the beasts all asleep 
in their dark and gloomy stronghold. What followed 
each time was a snort and a mighty crash—they had 
gone, ploughing a way through bush and brake, and 
never once had I the luck to see them. 
44 When the moon waxed full, we tried to cultivate 
a closer acquaintance on those open glades of natural 
pasturage which are of such frequent occurrence in these 
forests, and on which the buffalo feed by night. We 
spent great part of our nights watching these spots, and 
a weird experience it was. As darkness overshadowed 
the scene, the first peculiarity that attracted attention 
was a succession of hideous shrieks, issuing, it seemed, 
from various points of the compass. We wondered 
what animal, or bird, could possibly be guilty of such 
enormities, and were but slightly reassured on learning 
