26 
THE NEW AFRICA 
pelled to sleep out just as we stood, after making a hearty 
supper on guinea-fowl or such game birds as we managed to 
shoot, which usually congregate in the neighbourhood of the 
pans where we camped. 
There was a faint wagon track to guide us, made by the 
traffic to Panda Matenga of occasional hunters and traders to 
this furthest settlement of white people. Although much over¬ 
grown with scrub and tree branches meeting overhead, much to 
the detriment of the tent covering our cart, which received 
many a tear and scratch in thicker bush, we never made a 
mistake in the route, or missed any of the waters to which this 
road was supposed to lead us. 
It was a glorious life, this sleeping out by a large fire, and 
walking from point to point in the best of health and training. 
Neither of us ever attempted to ride in the cart, and before 
Panda Matenga was reached, a thirty mile walk was faced with as 
little anxiety, or, even less, than the breakfast question—for of the 
latter we were not always quite sure, unless the guns had been 
lucky. The cart could crawl but slowly through the incessant 
soft sand-belts, and often Hammar, who expressed some anxiety 
about the welfare of his instruments, would stay behind, leaving 
me to peg ahead alone, thus giving me greater opportunity for 
shooting, although game was very scarce along the route after 
leaving Makarikari. 
Near Horns Vley -pan, while walking a few miles ahead of 
the cart, to be well ahead of the sound of the cracking of the 
whip, which scares the game for miles ahead, I came to a turf 
Hat, and there, in the centre of the open, were four wildebeest 
and seven hartebeest grazing together. Four hundred yards 
was the nearest I could get to them; so, sighting my rifle for 
that distance, I let drive at the largest wildebeest, and heard the 
bullet klop, but he did not fall to the shot. The startled troop 
made off in the direction of a small knoll in the plain to the 
right, when I got another shot in, about one hundred yards 
further off, and soon saw a wildebeest lag behind the retreating 
troop, and then drop. Hurrying up, I found him dead, and then 
