A TROOP OF BABOONS.

As soon as we had started them off, Lort Phillips and I went out with our rifles to a small k/ior that ran into the opposite side of the river, and where there were some pools of water. We found that animals often preferred drinking at these pools away from the river, to going to the river itself, as by so doing they were less likely to be disturbed. We did not see much game. I shot an oterop, and my companion a buck nellut with the finest pair of horns of any we had bagged so far.

We spent some time watching a large troop of baboons. -There were nearly two hundred, and one never got tired of watching them. A great many of the females carried young ones on their backs ; and a great deal of screaming, and sometimes fighting, took place. It was wonderful to see the way in which the young ones kept their seats, as their mothers, to whom they clung, were chased from rock to rock and tree to tree by other baboons, generally not in anger, but for pure fun and mischief. We seldom shot any of these creatures, as none of the natives would eat them ; we took three or four skins home, however, as they make very handsome mats.

On our return to camp we found that my brothers and Colvin had made another expedition up Khor Meheteb. During the night we twice heard shots in camp, the air being so still and clear that the report of a rifle could be heard for a long distance ; and we began to hope it was really the elephants this time, when at about twelve o'clock they arrived, bringing a cow buffalo. They had had a most exciting night watching by the water, the first visitors to arrive being a large herd of buffaloes, who, however, got their wind, and galloped off without either drinking, or allowing themselves to be seen ; next came two bulls, one of which they managed to send off wounded, and heard bellowing several times during the night. About day-