396 
AFRICAN HUNTING. 
After being in the saddle all day, and seeing nothing, 
just as the sun went down, a giraffe bull stalked out 
of the bush half a mile from the wagon. I got Bat¬ 
wing saddled forthwith, and had a break-neck chevy 
after him over regular boulder stones by moonlight for 
some three miles, as hard as ever I could prevail on 
my nag to go, but he galloped in fear and trembling. 
At last, the stones, or rather rocks, became almost 
impassable even for the giraffe, and he had to slacken 
his enormous stride, and I, putting on a spurt, was 
alongside before he could get under weigh again, and 
rolled him over, to my great glee, as I am most 
anxious to be off, and I could not leave my wagon 
without a supply of flesh. 
August 4 th. —Zambesi Falls at last. I set off reso¬ 
lutely on the 1st, being determined to find the Falls, 
walked all day and all night, and towards morning I 
heard the roar of them. I never rested till I threw 
myself down, just before daybreak, within three hun¬ 
dred yards of the river, and I spent yesterday at the 
Falls, which far exceeded all I have been led to 
expect. Eougher travelling I never encountered, 
but I had the benefit of the full moon. 
I struck the river first about two miles above the 
Falls, and there it is not less than two miles wide, 
covered with islands of all sizes, one at least ten or 
twelve miles round, wooded to the water’s edge — 
mowana trees, palmyra and palms, and plenty of wild 
dates, some of the former measuring twenty yards 
round the bole. The river is the finest and most 
