ch. ii] SOLITARY RIDES 53 
sais and gun-bearers. I cannot describe the beauty and 
the unceasing interest of these rides, through the teem¬ 
ing herds of game. It was like retracing the steps of 
time for sixty or seventy years, and being back in the 
days of Cornwallis Harris and Gordon Gumming, in 
the palmy times of the giant fauna of South Africa. 
On Pease’s own farm one day I passed through scores 
of herds of the beautiful and wonderful wild creatures 
I have spoken of above; all told there were several 
thousands of them. With the exception of the wilde¬ 
beest, most of them were not shy, and I could have 
taken scores of shots at a distance of a couple of hundred 
yards or thereabouts. Of course, I did not shoot at 
anything unless we were out of meat or needed the 
skin for the collection; and when we took the skin we 
almost always took the meat too, for the porters, 
although they had their rations of rice, depended for 
much of their well-being on our success with the rifle. 
These rides through the wild, lonely country, with 
only my silent black followers, had a peculiar charm. 
When the sky was overcast it was cool and pleasant, 
for it is a high country; as soon as the sun appeared 
the vertical tropic rays made the air quiver above the 
scorched land. As we passed down a hill-side we 
brushed through aromatic shrubs, and the hot, pleasant 
fragrance enveloped us. When we came to a nearly 
dry watercourse, there would be beds of rushes, beautiful 
lilies and lush green plants with staring flowers, and 
great deep green fig-trees, or flat-topped mimosas. In 
many of these trees there were sure to be native bee¬ 
hives ; these were sections of hollow logs hung from 
the branches ; they formed striking and characteristic 
features of the landscape. Wherever there was any 
moisture there were flowers, brilliant of hue and many 
