much excited all my followers. Ali came 
rushing into the tent to tell me that there 
was “a big snake up high.” This certain¬ 
ly seemed worth investigating, and I fol¬ 
lowed him outside where everybody was 
looking at the “snake, ” which proved to be 
a huge, funnel-shaped, whirling cloud, ca¬ 
reering across the darkened sky. It was a 
kind of waterspout or cyclone; fortunately 
it passed to one side of camp. 
The first day I hunted I shot only a stein- 
buck for the table. The country alternated 
between bare plains and great stretches of 
sparse, stunted thorns. We saw zebra, and 
two or three bands of oryx; big, handsome 
4 
antelope, strongly built and boldly colored, 
with long, black, rapier-like horns. They 
were very wary, much more so than the 
zebra with which they associated, and we 
could not get anywhere near them. 
Next day I hunted along the edges of a 
big swamp. We saw water-buck, but were 
unable to get within shot. However, near 
the farther end of the swamp, in an open 
swale, we found four eland feeding. The 
eland is the king of antelope; and not only 
did I desire meat for camp, but I wished the 
head of a good bull as a trophy for myself, 
the eland I had hitherto shot being for the 
National Museum. The little band included 
