and it is of the same size at both ends, like those of the alligator.  The flesh, and especially the liver, is excellent.  The hunters informed us that, when the message inculcating peace among the tribes came to Masiko, the common people were so glad at the prospect of “binding up the spears”, that they ran to the river, and bathed and plunged in it for joy.  This party had been sent by Masiko to the Makololo for aid to repel their enemy, but, afraid to go thither, had spent the time in hunting.  They have a dread of the Makololo, and hence the joy they expressed when peace was proclaimed.  The Mambowe hunters were much alarmed until my name was mentioned.  They then joined our party, and on the following day discovered a hippopotamus dead, which they had previously wounded.  This was the first feast of flesh my men had enjoyed, for, though the game was wonderfully abundant, I had quite got out of the way of shooting, and missed perpetually.  Once I went with the determination of getting so close that I should not miss a zebra.  We went along one of the branches that stretch out from the river in a small canoe, and two men, stooping down as low as they could, paddled it slowly along to an open space near to a herd of zebras and pokus.  Peering over the edge of the canoe, the open space seemed like a patch of wet ground, such as is often seen on the banks of a river, made smooth as the resting-place of alligators.  When we came within a few yards of it, we found by the precipitate plunging of the reptile that this was a large alligator itself.  Although I had been most careful to approach near enough, I unfortunately only broke the hind leg of a zebra.  My two men pursued it, but the loss of a hind leg does not prevent this animal from a gallop.  As I walked slowly after the men on an extensive plain covered with a great crop of grass, which was ‘laid’ by its own weight, I observed that a solitary buffalo, disturbed by others of my own party, was coming to me at a gallop.  I glanced around, but the only tree on the plain was a hundred yards off, and there was no escape elsewhere.  I therefore cocked my rifle, with the intention of giving him a steady shot in the forehead when he should come within three or four yards of me.  The thought flashed across my mind, “What if your gun misses fire?” I placed it to my shoulder as he came on at full speed, and that is tremendous, though generally he is a lumbering-looking animal in his paces.  A small bush and bunch of grass fifteen yards off made him swerve a little, and exposed his shoulder.  I just heard the ball crack there as I fell flat on my face.  The pain must have made him renounce his purpose, for he bounded close past me on to the water, where he was found dead.  In expressing my thankfulness to God among my men, they were much offended with themselves for not being present to shield me from this danger.  The tree near me was a camel-thorn, and reminded me that we had come back to the land of thorns again, for the country we had left is one of evergreens.