. Wild scenes of a hunter's life; . e 25th, at dawn of day, we inspanned, and trekked abou*.five hours in a northeasterly course, through a boundless opencountry, sparingly adorned with dwarfish old trees. In the dis-tance the long-sought mountains of Bamangwato at length loomedblue before me. We halted beside a glorious fountain, which atonce made me forget all the cares and difficulties I had encoun-tered in reachmg it. The name of this fountain was Massouey, butI at once christened it ^ the Elephants own Fountain. Thiswas a very remarkable spot on the southern borders of endlesselephant for
. Wild scenes of a hunter's life; . e 25th, at dawn of day, we inspanned, and trekked abou*.five hours in a northeasterly course, through a boundless opencountry, sparingly adorned with dwarfish old trees. In the dis-tance the long-sought mountains of Bamangwato at length loomedblue before me. We halted beside a glorious fountain, which atonce made me forget all the cares and difficulties I had encoun-tered in reachmg it. The name of this fountain was Massouey, butI at once christened it ^ the Elephants own Fountain. Thiswas a very remarkable spot on the southern borders of endlesselephant forests, at which I had at length arrived. The fountainwas deep and strong, situated in a hollow at the eastern extremityof an extensive vley, and its margin was surrounded by a levelstratum of solid old red sandstone. Here and there lay a thicklayer of soil upon the rock, and this was packed flat wiwh thefresh spoor of elephants. Around the waters edge the very rockwas worn down by the gigantic feet which for ages had tro(tden HUNTING THE GIRAFFE. 297 The soil of the surrounding country was white and yellow sand,but grass, trees, and bushes were abundant. From the bordersof the fountain a hindred well-trodden elephant foot-paths ledliway in every direction, like the radii of a circle. The breadthof these paths was about three feet; those leading to the nortn*ward and east was most frequented, the country in those directionsbeing well wooded. We drew up the wagons on a hillock on thejastern side of the water. This position commanded a good view)f any game that might approach to drink. I had just cookedmy breakfast, and commenced to feed when I heard my men ex-claim. Almagtig keek de ghroote clomp cameel; and raising myeyes from my sassayby stew, I beheld a truly beautiful and veryunusual scene. From the margin of the fountain there extendedan open level vley, without tree or bush, that stretched away abouta mile to the northward, where it was bounded by extensivegroves of
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookpublishe, booksubjecthunting
