way to a wide grass-plain, to which the Marutse and Masupias had given the name of Blockley’s kraal.
It seemed to be full of game, and we left our canoes for a time and went ashore. Herds of buffaloes were visible on the outskirts; here, too, for the first time I saw some letshwe and puku antelopes; they were cropping the pasturage by hundreds; the letshwes were larger and the pukus smaller than blessbocks, and both, like all waterbocks, had shaggy, light-brown hair, and horns bent forward. I likewise saw some groups of rietbocks in the long grass, and in the direction of the woods were herds of zebras, as well as striped gnus, sometimes as many as twenty together.
After re-embarking, we kept close to the shore, with the object of avoiding the hippopotamuses that in the day-time frequent the middle of the stream, only rising from time to time to breathe. Whenever the current made it necessary for us to change to the opposite side of the river, I could see that the boatmen were all on the qui-vive to get across as rapidly as possible, and I soon afterwards learnt by experience what good reason they had to be cautious. We had occasion to steer outwards so as to clear a papyrus island, when all at once the men began to back water, and the one nearest me whispered the word “kubu.” He was pointing to a spot hardly 200 yards ahead, and on looking I saw first one hippopotamus’s head, and then a second, raised above the surface of the stream, both puffing out little fountains from the nostrils. They quickly disappeared, and the men paddled on gently, till they were tolerably close to the place where the brutes had been seen. Both Blockley and I cocked
