280 «AHAI OW MAZADA!"

characterized by small incident, and the sailors on my own floating home had the best of it as they followed a few hours later, marking a lion en route.

A fair, white-eared cob was bagged on one bank ; the wood on the other grew dense, and great herds of tiang and waterbuck grazed on the spaces between. Some fine heads appearing amongst them, I landed to stalk—a proceeding vastly more difficult where there are numbers of animals rather than few, as the coveted head is usually in a spot beyond the position of others who have to be passed. They moved slowly on as some saw me, covering fully a mile ere they stopped. A low stretch of bush favoured, and now, far from the river, the opportunity came. I fired, and, hitting low, broke the front-leg of the buck, which moved off. Lying quiet—for I thought myself still unperceived— I awaited events, and was right ; for he soon stopped again, and a second shot then brought him down.

Hanging a piece of white paper on a bush, I returned to the steamer, and found the men, replete with buffalo and cob meat, unwilling to trouble to fetch the head in, the walk being long in the depth of the forest. To my surprise, I perceived, on getting back, that the crows had already been at work, having picked out the eyes of the buck.

The days of shooting were now coming to an end, and the most had to be made of remaining opportunity in a country still replete with game.

Early in the morning I saw specks against the bush belt, which the glass resolved into ostriches.