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AFRICAN HUNTING. 
abundance. I do not believe a drop of rain has fallen 
for the last ten months, but, from the threatening 
state of the weather, we expect it every day now. 
My favourite cow, Nelly, a splendid milker, died 
yesterday of lung sickness. Not being able to shoot 
or buy anything, I was forced to kill an ox on Sunday, 
as my Masara boys were positively crying for hunger. 
The day after, I killed two giraffes, and Kleinboy one ; 
and we might, had the roads and wagons not been 
so frightfully heavy, have laid in a stock of dried 
meat that would take us to Sechele’s. I hope to 
arrive there in about eight days, and do not care how 
soon, as we are entirely out of all the necessaries of 
life. 
Nov. 1st. — Lopepe .—We have at length had four 
successive days of glorious rain, putting our minds 
quite at ease as far as water is concerned ; but the 
cure is nearly as bad as the disease, as the bitter cold, 
always the case when rain falls, has killed two oxen 
outright, and the survivors are a spectacle. I have 
been here a week, and in bed four days of it, the 
change of weather bringing on a violent return of 
fever and ague. I tried to trek to-day, but found the 
roads in such a dreadful state that I was obliged to 
give it up. Stores have long since been at an end, 
and we are entirely dependent on our guns for our 
daily sustenance. I killed three giraffes out of a 
troop. It was very hard work, and I will never attempt 
it again ; my horse fell heavily with me once, which 
gave him, poor fellow, a good two or three miles 
