188 
THE NEW AFRICA 
told even at the long ranges we fired at, for later in the day 
they disappeared and troubled us no more. 
A female rhinoceros with a calf crossed my path as I was 
walking slightly in advance of the column towards afternoon, 
and I felt towards her much as Reynard the fox did towards 
the forbidden fowls in Goethe’s ReineJce Fuchs, but restrained 
myself from shooting, although she stood and looked at me 
quite half a minute from fifty yards off, deciding whether she 
would charge or leave me alone. At last she went off. A little 
further on I came on to a salt lick or creek that ran from the 
south-west into the Liana river, and even as I write now my 
mind is pleasantly excited at the marvellous sight of game that 
burst on my view. As far as I could see up the open laagte the 
ground was teeming with heavy game. Close in front of me 
stood three giraffes; a little further on a troop of seven more; 
between these a troop of buffalo; a little beyond, troops of 
giraffe, eland, buffalo, hartebeest, quagga, letzwee, rooi buck, 
blue wildebeest, ostriches, reed buck, and more, and more, 
repeated over again until the whole valley seemed one teeming 
mass of life. Unable to control myself from excitement, and 
wondering what effect a shot would have on this vast assembly 
of game, I stealthily looked round, and finding none of the 
party in sight, although there were more reasons than one wdiy 
I should not shoot, I guiltily clinked the nearest giraffe sixty 
yards off under the ear with a Martini-Henry bullet, and she 
dropped, with one chopping blow of her powerful forelegs, into 
the reeds they were standing in, which effectively hid the body 
from sight as it lay. The shot boomed along the valley, hedged 
in by the forest on either side, awakening the recumbent and 
resting game into activity. Mercy! what a wonderful sight it 
was! The troops careered about like mad, till the earth rever¬ 
berated to their hoofs; some ran one way, and some another. 
Many troops thundered down in my direction, and passed close 
to the advancing column of boys. Two rhinoceros that had been 
reposing in the reeds lining the little creek where the giraffe 
was lying, started up, and, with elastic bounds no one woidd 
