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noceros I took my field-glasses and swept the surrounding
country. A t a point about 600 yards distant I saw
what I supposed to be a black-and-white ox, standing
behind some rocks. After examination, Lieutenant
von Hohnel concluded that what we saw was two
native women. We both came to the conclusion that,
whether cattle or women, it was a happy sign that
natives were in the vicinity. I moved off silently
in that direction; when my ox and Lieutenant von
Hohnel’s native women, upon close inspection, proved
to be four marabout storks. These stately birds were
nearly four feet in height, and on the plain (oddly
enough) the greater the distance from which they
were viewed, the larger they seemed to be.
- After the rhinoceros meat was cut up and divided
among the men, we set out on our journey. Soon the
bush closed around us again, and we were forced laboriously
to cut our way through it. A t length, about
3 p .m . , the aspect of the country changed as though by
magic. Before us, stretching to the foot of the mountains,
lay a beautiful grassy plain, thousands of acres in
extent, and marked - here and there by strips of green
foliage, outlining the course of streams tributary to the
Mackenzie. Scattered over the plain were groves of
tall and graceful dhum palms, and clumps of a well-
rounded, close-growing bush, with glazed leaves similar
in appearance to the holly. It resembled a vast park.
My men gave forth a cheer upon realizing that the hard
work incident to forcing passage through the thick bush
was at an end, at least for a time, and that easy marching
lay before them. However, the way was not so
smooth as it at first appeared to the eye, for beneath