nails in my shoes clink slightly against a stone, the hunter turned
to me with a frown of angry impatience; but as he walked slowly,
continually halting to look ahead, as well as stooping over to examine
the trail, I did not find it very difficult to move silently. I kept
a little behind him, and to one side, save when he crouched to take
advantage of some piece of cover, and I crept in his footsteps. I did
not look at the trail at all, but kept watching ahead, hoping at any
moment to see the game.

It was not very long before we struck their day beds, which were made on
a knoll, where the forest was open and where there was much down timber.
After leaving the day beds the animals had at first fed separately
around the grassy base and sides of the knoll, and had then made off in
their usual single file, going straight to a small pool in the forest.
After drinking they had left this pool, and travelled down towards the
gorge at the mouth of the basin, the trail leading along the sides of
the steep hill, which were dotted by open glades; while the roar of the
cataracts by which the stream was broken, ascended from below. Here we
moved with redoubled caution, for the sign had grown very fresh and the
animals had once more scattered and begun feeding. When the trail led
across the glades we usually skirted them so as to keep in the timber.

At last, on nearing the edge of one of these glades we saw a movement
among the young trees on the other side, not fifty yards away. Peering
through the safe shelter yielded by some thick evergreen bushes, we
speedily made out three bison, a cow, a calf, and a yearling, grazing
greedily on the other side of the glade, under the fringing timber; all
with their heads up hill. Soon another cow and calf stepped out after
them. I did not wish to shoot, waiting for the appearance of the big
bull which I knew was accompanying them.