660 
African Game Trails 
Their heads were curiously shaved so that 
the hair tufts stood out in odd patterns, and 
they carried small bows, and arrows with 
poisoned heads. 
The following morning I rode out with 
Captain Slatter. We kept among the hills. 
The long drought was still unbroken. The 
little pools were dry and their bottoms baked 
like iron, and there was not a drop in the 
water-courses. Part 
of the land was open 
and part covered 
with a thin forest or 
bush of scattered 
mimosa trees. In 
the open country 
were many zebras 
and hartebeests, 
and the latter were 
found even in the 
thin bush. In the 
morning we found a 
small herd of eland 
at which, after some 
stalking, I got a long 
shot and missed. 
The eland is the 
largest of all the 
horned creatures 
that are called ante¬ 
lope, being quite as 
heavy as a fattened 
ox. The herd I ap¬ 
proached consisted 
of a dozen individ¬ 
uals, two of them 
huge bulls, their 
coats having turned 
a slatey blue, their 
great dewlaps hang- Masai Elmoran) m 
ing down, and the F r 0 m a P hoto grap i 
legs looking almost 
too small for the massive bodies. The red¬ 
dish colored cows were of far lighter build. 
Eland are beautiful creatures and ought to 
be domesticated. As I crept toward them 
I was struck by their likeness to great clean 
handsome cattle. They were grazing or rest¬ 
ing, switching their long tails at the flies 
that hung in attendance upon them and 
lit on their flanks, just as if they were Jerseys 
in a field at home. My bullet fell short, 
their size causing me to underestimate the 
distance, and away they went at a run, one 
or two of the cows in the first hurry and con¬ 
fusion skipping clean over the backs of 
others that got in their way—a most unex¬ 
pected example of agility in such large and 
ponderous animals. After a few hundred 
yards they settled down to the slashing trot 
which is their natural gait, and disappeared 
over the brow of a hill. 
The morning was a blank, but early in 
the afternoon we saw the eland herd again. 
They were around a tree in an open space, 
and we could not get 
near them. But 
instead of going 
straight away they 
struck off to the 
right and described 
almost a semicircle, 
and though they 
were over four hun¬ 
dred yards distant, 
they were such big 
creatures and their 
gait was so steady 
that I felt warranted 
in shooting. On the 
dry plain I could 
mark where my bul¬ 
lets fell, and though 
I could not get a 
good chance at the 
bull I finally downed 
a fine cow; and by 
pacing I found it 
to be a little over a 
quarter of a mile 
from where I stood 
when shooting. 
It was about nine 
miles from camp, 
and I dared not 
leave the eland 
alone, so I stationed 
one of the gun-bear¬ 
ers by the great carcass and sent a mes¬ 
senger in to Heller, on whom we depended 
for preserving the skins of the big game. 
Hardly had this been done when a Wkam- 
ba man came running up to tell us that there 
was a rhinoceros on the hill-side three-quart¬ 
ers of a mile away, and that he had left a 
companion to watch it while he carried us 
the news. Slatter and I immediately rode 
in the direction given following our wild¬ 
looking guide, the other gun-bearer trotting 
after us. In five minutes we had reached 
the opposite hill-crest, where the watcher 
stood, and he at once pointed out the rhino. 
