ervals and
with the exercise of the greatest care, I was annoyed to observe that
the uneasiness of my quarries was rapidly increasing; they had ceased to
feed, and were standing at attention, with their ears switching quickly
to and fro and their heads continually turning this way and that, as
though they scented danger of some sort but could not determine its
character or, more important still, from which direction it was coming:
and I began to fear that before I could get near enough to put in a
decisive shot they would stampede and I should lose them altogether.
And, sure enough, that was precisely what they did, a great bull
giraffe, evidently the leader of the herd, and the animal which I had
finally fixed upon as my own particular prey, suddenly tossing up his
head and breaking away up the valley in a long, lumbering, ungainly
canter, instantly followed by the rest of the herd.

I was not only intensely annoyed but also greatly puzzled at this
behaviour on the part of the great, long-legged, long-necked creatures,
for I could not believe that the flight had been the result of any
carelessness on my part; but while I stood watching them rapidly
increasing the distance between themselves and me I became aware of a
curious dimming of the atmosphere along the top edge of the cliffs on
the western side of the ravine, and while I was still wondering what
this might be, a low, murmurous, rumbling sound gradually evolved itself
out of the faint sigh of the breeze over the grass and through the
foliage of the bush--a sound which, as I listened, rapidly developed
into the beat of innumerable hoofs, mingled with the bleatings and
barkings of a veritable army of bucks of various descriptions. Then I
knew that the dimming of the atmosphere along the summit of the western
cliffs was due to a cloud of light, impalpable dust, swept along before
a great migrating army of game crossing the mountain range, probably on
the march in search of water, and I waited to see what would happen when
the vanguard of the army should reach the edge of the cliffs.

I had not very long to wait; the dust cloud rapidly thickened, and the
low rumbling beat of hoofs on the hard dry soil of the hill crest
quickly increased in volume until it became like the thunderous roar of
surf upon a rock-bound shore, mingled with the continuous cries of a
countless host of animals all herded together under the influence of
some mysterious but powerful influence.