HAMMAR’S BIRTHDAY 
219 
position. The introduction of such putrid matter into a wound 
on a living subject will naturally bring severe inflammation in its 
wake. Beyond this influence, one can safely affirm that lion 
claws are no more poisonous than any other indifferent object. 
Subsequent events proved that a suspicion I had that it 
would have been wiser to remain here for a few days and feed 
up the boys and ourselves, and also make biltong, game being 
really plentiful, was correct. It was only owing to the pro¬ 
verbial ill-luck that always befalls hunters when food is scarce 
that we had been unfortunate in killing game here at the out¬ 
set, and now we had meat, it would have been a very easy 
matter to increase the supply by a couple of days’ hunting. 
But, spoilt as we had been by the amount of game on the 
Chobe, we had not yet quite learned the lesson of caution, and 
our expectations were satisfied that there would be a similar 
quantity of game on the Okovanga, whose banks we were now 
approaching, and that what we had met here was only the 
precursor to a repetition of the quantities of the game on the 
Chobe. 
On the following day, August the 30th, we made fourteen 
miles in a south-westerly direction over several pure white sand- 
belts, overgrown with a vegetation of trees differing in character 
from what we had hitherto passed. The mabula trees became 
scarcer, and white-stemmed thinly leafed trees occupied the 
whole country. We came upon three giraffes feeding on tree 
tops on the way; but they were off before we got within range, 
and the party was too tired to follow them up. To us it seemed 
as if the country we were covering was rising slightly, a fact 
borne out by our finding no water in the belts and laagtes. 
The boys lagged terribly on the road, and while waiting for the 
stragglers, the on-coming darkness necessitated our camping in 
the middle of a sand-belt, without water, a fact we sincerely 
deplored, as it was Hammar’s birthday, and the toast to his 
health had to be consumed ‘ straight ’ as it came from the bottle. 
We slept without the usual skerm, as every one seemed too 
tired to trouble about it, and started early next day, making 
