272 
African Game Trails 
The following day I was out by myself, 
after impalla and Roberts’ gazelle; and the 
day after I went out with Tarlton to try for 
lion. We were away from camp for over 
fifteen hours. Each was followed by his 
sais and gun-bearers, and we took a dozen 
porters also. The day may be worth de¬ 
scribing, as a sample of the days when we 
did not start before dawn for a morning’s 
hunt. 
We left camp at seven, steering for a 
high, rocky hill, four miles off. We passed 
zebra and hartebeest, and on the hill 
came upon Chanler’s reedbuck; but we 
wanted none of these. Continually, Tarlton 
stopped to examine some distant object with 
his glasses, and from the hill we scanned 
the country far and wide; but we saw 
nothing we desired and continued on our 
course. The day was windy and cool, and 
the sky often overcast. Slowly we 
walked across the stretches of brown 
grassland, sometimes treeless, some¬ 
times scantily covered with an open 
growth of thorn-trees, each branch 
armed with long spikes, needle- 
sharp; and among the thorns here 
and there stood the huge cactus-like 
euphorbias, shaped like candelabra, 
groups of tall aloes, and gnarled 
wild olives of great age, with hoary 
trunks and twisted branches. Now 
and then there would be a dry water¬ 
course, with flat-topped acacias bor¬ 
dering it, and perhaps some one 
pool of thick greenish water. There 
was game always in view, and about noon 
we sighted three rhinos, a bull, a cow, and 
a big calf, nearly a mile ahead of us. We 
were travelling downwind, and they scented 
us, but did not charge, making off in a 
semicircle and halting when abreast of us. 
We examined them carefully through the 
glasses. The cow was bigger than the bull, 
and had fair horns, but nothing extraor¬ 
dinary; and as we were twelve miles from 
camp, so that Heller would have had to 
come out for the night if we shot her, we 
decided to leave her alone. Then our at¬ 
tention was attracted by seeing the game 
all gazing in one direction, and we made 
out a hyena; I got a shot at it, at three 
hundred yards, but missed. Soon afterward 
we saw another rhino, but on approaching 
it proved to be about two-thirds grown, 
with a stubby horn. We did not wish to 
