But what joy it was, after a long, hot, fatiguing tramp, during which
water had to be doled out in sips, to reach a mighty stream, perhaps
several hundred yards wide, where one might drink one's fill, wash the
grime from one's clothes and person, and loll in the shade of lordly
trees.

In writing of those old days I find it hard to realize that the
localities described are still in existence. I suppose the rivers are
yet running in the old channels, but as the rainfall has been steadily
decreasing they are not likely to be today the full, impetuous torrents
of liquid crystal that I remember. Moreover, the game, that rapidly
moving, kaleidoscopic pageant of varied animal life which made their
forested banks a wonder and a joy, has disappeared.

Of all the lovely scenes through which I have wandered, the landscapes
along the Olifant and the Letaba dwell in my memory as the loveliest.
In those one-time almost inviolate retreats were to be found everything
best calculated to delight the heart of the hunter or the lover of
nature. I am, of course, assuming winter as the season, for in summer
the worm "that pierces the liver and blackens the blood" made these
regions almost uninhabitable for Europeans. But from June to October,
inclusive, the country was healthy, the sky rarely held a cloud, the
sun shone mildly, and the night was seldom, if ever, cold.

Although the banks of the Low Country rivers were usually heavily
wooded, one found here and there wide grassy glades opening to the
waterside. The country being flat, the river-courses were usually wide,
with many large rocks standing high out of the water. Between these
the streams eddy and wind. Sometimes one would camp near a rapid, and
below this a deep pool was invariably to be found; in such pools the
sea-cows, snorting and champing, might sometimes be heard throughout
the night.

The process of crossing rivers was believed to be dangerous on account
of crocodiles, which were often to be seen in large numbers. These
reptiles, however, seldom did any damage except in the vicinity of a
native kraal, where they used occasionally to seize women and children
who came down to fill their pots and calabashes with water. I once saw
a dog taken by one; at least, I assumed that such was the case. The dog
was swimming across a deep channel between two shallows when it gave a
yelp and disappeared. There were many crocodiles in the river where
this happened.

The rivers were