have succumbed to the wound. One was 
this impalla. Another was the cow eland 
I first shot; her hind leg was broken high 
up, and the wound, though crippling, was 
not such as would have prevented a moose 
or wapiti from hobbling away on three legs; 
yet in spite of hard struggles the eland was 
wholly unable to regain her feet. The im¬ 
palla thus shot, by the way, although in fine 
condition and the coat of glossy beauty, 
was infested by ticks; around the horns the 
horrid little insects were clustered in thick 
masses for a space of a diameter of some 
inches. It was to me marvellous that they 
had not'set up inflammation or caused great 
sores, for they were so thick that at a dis¬ 
tance of a few feet they gave the appear¬ 
ance of there being some big gland or bare 
place at the root of each horn. 
The other impalla buck also showed 
an unexpected softness, succumbing to a 
wound which I do not believe would have 
given me either a white-tailed or a black¬ 
tailed deer. I had been vainly endeavoring 
to get a water-buck bull, and as the day was 
growing hot I was riding homeward, scan¬ 
ning the edge of the plain where it merged 
into the trees that extended out from the 
steep bank that hemmed in one side of the 
river bottom. From time to time we would 
see an impalla or a water-buck making its 
way from the plain back to the river bot¬ 
tom, to spend the day in the shade. One of 
these I stalked, and after a good deal of long- 
range shooting broke a hind leg high up. 
It got out of sight and we rode along the 
edge of the steep descent which led down 
into the river bottom proper. In the bottom 
there were large, open, grassy places, while 
the trees made a thick fringe along the river 
course. - We had given up the impalla and 
turned out toward the plain, when one of 
my gun-bearers whistled to us and said he 
had seen the wounded animal cross the bot¬ 
tom and go into the fringe of trees bounding 
a deep pool in which we knew there were 
both hippos and crocodiles. We were off 
our horses at once, and, leaving them at 
the top, scrambled down the descent and 
crossed the bottom to the spot indicated. 
The impalla had lain down as soon as it 
reached cover, and as we entered the fringe 
of wood I caught a glimpse of it getting up 
and making off. Yet fifty yards farther it 
stopped again, standing right on the brink 
of the pool, so close that when I shot it, it 
fell over into the water. 
When, after arranging for this impalla to 
be carried back to the farm, we returned to 
where our horses had been left, the boys 
told us with much excitement that there 
was a large snake near by; and sure enough 
