138 A BUFFALO HUNT [ch. yi 
intended to take advantage of a small, half-dried water¬ 
course, an affluent of the Kamiti, which began a mile 
beyond where we had killed our bulls, and for three or 
four miles ran in a course generally parallel to the 
swamp, and at a distance which varied, but averaged 
perhaps a quarter of a mile. When we reached the 
beginning of this watercourse, we left our horses and 
walked along it. Like all such watercourses, it wound 
in curves. The banks were four or five feet high, the 
bottom was sometimes dry and sometimes contained 
reedy pools, while at intervals there were clumps of 
papyrus. Heatley went ahead, and just as we had about 
concluded that the buffalo would not come out, he came 
back to tell us that he had caught a glimpse of several, 
and believed that the main herd was with them. 
Cuninghame, a veteran hunter and first-class shot, than 
whom there could be no better man to have with one 
when after dangerous game, took charge of our further 
movements. We crept up the watercourse until about 
opposite the buffalo, which were now lying down. 
Cuninghame peered cautiously at them, saw there were 
two or three, and then led us on all-fours toward them. 
There were patches where the grass was short, and other 
places where it was three feet high, and after a good 
deal of cautious crawling we had covered half the distance 
toward them, when one of them made us out, and 
several rose from their beds. They were still at least 
two hundred yards off—a long range for heavy rifles ; 
but any closer approach was impossible, and we fired. 
Both the leading bulls were hit, and at the shots there 
rose from the grass not half a dozen buffalo, but seventy 
or eighty, and started at a gallop parallel to the swamp 
and across our front. In the rear were a number of 
cows and calves, and I at once singled out a cow and 
