salt, probably pickling it migbt also bave answered.
The pannches were in several cases lined with clusters
of maggots, a disease known amongst sheep in this
country.
Buffaloes gave Speke some dashing home-charges';
but though I sought them everywhere, I never had a
shot. Their meat was as fine as that which any English
butcher can produce—the men eating of it day
and night as long as it lasted. Brindled gnu is
equally good, but far more beautiful in the field.
Fearfully shy, they look at you for an instant only,
then scamper off, lashing about their switching long
tails; and after giving a short spurt, they turn round
again, take another furtive glance, and then bound
madly away.
Giraffe are such wary animals, their heads peering
over the tops of the acacias on which they feed, that
only one specimen, a bull, was shot. This was done
with a Lancaster ball through the heart, and I thought
the latter small in proportion to the size of the animal.
On asking for the head to be brought for preservation,
I found that the Wezee porters had cut the ears off,
and were already frizzling them for dinner. The hairs
of the tail are so stiff, thick, long, and such a handsome
black, that the natives value them very much
for stringing bead-necklaces. It being a thorny acacia
country, our men benefited by the giraffe’s thick skin,
which they converted into excellent sandals. For
days afterwards, as they passed to windward, the
odour of a menagerie was unmistakable.
Lions were fired at once during a moonlight march;
others were heard both day and night making, short
coughing noises, but never “ roaring like a lion.” They
kill cattle, and, if trapped, are carried lashed in a litter
-as royal property to the sultan. Tracks of the
elephant were numerous in Ugogo. Here we saw
some hunters, Mukua, from the Lufigi, with long
“ Tower” flint-muskets, looking as perfect as when
new. With these they watch the elephant at night
by solitary pools of water, and fire a volley into him;
but they consider that the best place to strike him is
just in front of the ear orifice. Eland, hartebeest,
black antelope, &c., and several smaller species, were
shot or observed in our constant pursuit for specimens.
There is a charm about the bark and spring of the
startled saltatrix, a chamois-sized antelope, or when
seen standing proudly on the face of the shelving rock,
that reminded us of the goorul or chamois of the
Himalayas. Their fore-feet, hoofs are immensely long
in the heel, enabling them to cling to the rocks.
The hirax, or coney, basking on the rocks, is also
very interesting: he is about three times the size of
the hare. We saw very few of the latter; they were
the same colour as the English, but smaller, with ears
disproportionately large; they seemed to run more like
rabbits than hares. Lungoor and monkey we seldom
met with; the latter are hunted for their skins by
the common pariah dog in Uzaramo, but the natives
do not eat them. Squirrels occasionally cracked nuts
on the forest-trees: they were of the usual size and
beauty, most difficult to “ twig,” and having a white
longitudinal stripe running down either side. There
were weasels, brown ferrets, small foxes with black
muzzles, and red foxes, jackal-sized, white-chested, with
the perfect bark of a dog, and extremely graceful, with
elegant dark brush. Mangy-coloured, impudent hy