y a whole host
of rhinoceros birds. I mounted my horse and gave him chase, and in a
few minutes he had received four severe shots. I managed to turn his
course toward camp, when I ceased firing, as he seemed to be nearly done
up, and Ruyter and I rode slowly behind, occasionally shouting to guide
his course. Presently, however, Chukuroo ceased taking any notice of us,
and held leisurely on for the river, into a shallow part of which he
walked, and, after panting there and turning about for a quarter of an
hour, he fell over and expired. This was a remarkably fine old bull, and
from his dentition it was not improbable that a hundred summers had seen
him roaming a peaceful denizen of the forests and open glades along the
fair banks of the secluded Mariqua.

During our march, on the 19th, we had to cross a range of very rocky
hills, covered with large loose stones, and all hands were required to
be actively employed for about an hour, in clearing them out of the way,
to permit the wagons to pass. The work went on fast and furious, and the
quantity of stones cleared was immense. At length we reached the spot
where we were obliged to bid adieu to the Mariqua, and hold a westerly
course across the country for Sicheley. At sundown we halted under a
lofty mountain, the highest in the district, called "Lynchie a Cheny,"
or the Monkey's Mountain.

Next day, at an early hour, I rode out with Ruyter to hunt, my camp
being entirely without flesh, and we having been rationed upon very
tough old rhinoceros for several days past. It was a cloudy morning, and
soon after starting, it came on to rain heavily. I, however, held on,
skirting a fine, well-wooded range of mountains, and after riding
several miles I shot a zebra. Having covered the carcass well over with
branches to protect it from the vultures, I returned to camp, and,
inspanning my wagons, took it up on the march. We continued trekking on
until sundown, when we started an immense herd of buffaloes, into which
I stalked, and shot a huge old bull.

Our march this evening was through the most beautiful country I had ever
seen in Africa. We skirted an endless range of well-wooded stony
mountains lying on our left, while to our right the country at first
sloped gently off, and then stretched away into a level green forest,
(occasionally interspersed with open glades,) boundless as the ocean.
This green forest was, however, relieved in one direction by a chain of
excessively bol