MORE SHOOTING 
57 
the reeds—I got three more shots into them, and had the 
satisfaction of seeing one down and another limping behind 
the crowd very sick and then dropping, before the last bounding 
object gained cover. On coming up Jan offered to bet me £5 
that in three weeks’ time he would make a bigger bag than I. 
On totalling up at the termination of time, Jan was some 
twenty short, although he got the first buffalo. He had not 
taken into consideration that my previous hunting experiences 
on the high flats, and in the bush veldt, and above all my youth, 
gave me a great advantage over him. 
When we camped for the night the bearers brought us a 
large potato-like bulb, nine inches in diameter, which when 
split open yielded a clear fluid rather acrid to the taste. The 
bushmen highly value this plant, which they call ‘ makuri/ as 
it supplies them with fluid in the dry sandy wastes in and about 
the Kalahari desert. With another root of a similar nature called 
‘ mamahude,’ much like a sweet potato in shape, makuri is often 
the only substitute for water, and without these they would 
perish of thirst on their long marches across the arid wastes, 
unless they are fortunate enough to fall in with melons, that 
also grow in the desert occasionally in large patches. 
Towards sunset Jan and I, strolling along the river banks, 
spied a large crocodile fast asleep, apparently thoughtless and 
lifeless after the manner of crocodiles. Firing simultaneously 
at about thirty yards we probably dealt him his death-blow, 
but giving a turn or two he made off into the water, and that 
was the last we saw of him—the usual experience of crocodile 
hunting in rivers and lakes. 
On June the 28th, as we proceeded up the river, I shot 
a large otter in the water, and while I was getting him out 
Ham mar went ahead and had one of the wildest experiences of 
hippo life the most gluttonous seeker into Nature’s secrets could 
desire. 
Through the bushes and grass he saw what he mistook 
for a smooth rock lying on the river bank in some open bush, 
and proceeded to investigate this odd block with thoughts of 
