the ferocious man-eater in whom a taste of human flesh has awakened a new faculty, which induces him to despise all meaner game, and plunge boldly into the camp of the hunter in search of a human victim. Elephants wander about singly, in pairs, or groups, and troop by night in vast herds down the lonely vleys where they can quench their thirst. "They walk about as thick as cattle," said the natives to Mr. Andersson. On one occasion, at least, he was able to verify the truth of this statement.

acter of this region is not attractive. Days oppressively warm are succeeded by nights exceedingly cold. The brief wet season, when the rain falls in torrents, is succeeded by months of absolute drought, when water-the element next after air most immediately necessary to life-is found only at long intervals in solitary fountains and stagnant pools. The country is intersected by mountains so steep and rugged as to impede the progress of the traveler's wagons, but rarely high enough to vary the monotony of the scene. Between these are broad plains, some covered We shall have something to say of Mr. Anduring the rainy season with juicy herbage, which dersson's adventures with wild beasts as we prois burned off as the dry season approaches, leav-ceed; but we must first explain the object and ing the ground dry and dusty; others overgrown direction of his present expedition. with thorny bushes standing so closely that the traveler must chop his way step by step. The colonists call the most common of these bushes the "Wait-a-bit;" it is thickly covered with thorns shaped like fish-hooks, each capable of sustaining a weight of seven pounds. The traveler who attempts to pass through such a thicket is forced to "wait a bit" at every step to clear his clothing from these thorns. These thorn-trees are indeed the peculiar characteristic of the country. Mr. Andersson once mentions coming upon a forest of trees without thorns. "I do not think," he says, "that I was ever more agreeably surprised in my life. A wood of beautiful foliage is so rare in this wretched country, that for a moment I hesitated to trust my senses. Even the dull faces of my native attendants seemed for a few seconds to relax from their usual heavy unintelligent cast, and to express joy at the novel scene.

The inhabitants of this region are as uninviting as their country. On the south are the Namaquas, professional marauders and plunderers. On the north are the Ovambo, alike treacherous and ferocious. Between them are the timid Damaras, a prey to both, and rapidly disappearing. Of the Ovambo, indeed, Mr. Andersson in his former visit formed a rather favorable opinion. He was received not ungraciously by their principal chief, Nangoro, the fattest creature in all Africa. But Mr. Green, his former companion, having subsequently made a journey to the Ovambo country with a dozen attendants, was treacherously attacked by six hundred of the natives. The assailants were beaten off with great loss. The fat old king himself was so terrified by the rapid discharge of firearms that he tumbled down, and his bowels burst asunder, leaving him a disgusting mass of dead carrion.

In 1824, Captain Chapman of the French frigate Espiègle discovered, between the 17th and 18th degrees of south latitude, the mouth of a great river, called the Nourse, or Cunene. It was laid down on the maps, where it remains to this day. Later exploring expeditions could discern no traces of such a river. Other voyagers, however, had found the mouth of the river, though it did not present the magnificent aspect described by the captain of the Espiègle. The natives explained this by saying that the river did not always make its way directly into the sea; but that sandbanks were sometimes thrown up at its mouth which compelled it to take a subterranean course. Farther inland, however, Portuguese traders spoke of a river which they called the Cunene, which was presumed to be identical with this. To reach the upper waters of the Cunene was the object of Mr. Green's expedition, which was frustrated by the treacherous attack of Nangoro. Mr. Green, however, made one important discovery. He found a fine lake called Onondova, some thirty miles in circumference, the existence of which had never been suspected. Andersson and Galton, six years before, had hunted within a day's journey of it, without ever hearing of it.

Andersson, having visited England to publish his "Lake Ngami," returned to Africa in 1856, and two years after resolved to set out in search of the Cunene. At Otjimbinqué, a missionary station near Wahlvisch Bay, he prepared his outfit. It consisted of eleven attendants, one Cape wagon, with thirty oxen to drag it in turn, several others for riding, one horse, four donkeys, seventy sheep and goats for slaughter when game could not be found, and a dozen dogs. On the 22d of March, 1858, the expedition left the station. In a fortnight it reached the Omaruru River, where the perils of the journey began. But uninviting as this region is to the agri- Now the wagon tumbled over a precipice; and culturist, it is the paradise of sportsmen. It again, for a hundred miles, they were entangled is a great zoological garden. Giraffes show in a thorn wood, through which for a hundred their long necks above the stunted acacia-trees, miles the way had to be cut foot by foot. The stooping to crop their topmost twigs. Gigantic pick and crowbar were also in frequent requisiboars, with enormous tusks, and fat hippopotami tion. It was chop, heave, and pick, from sunabound. Leopards and hyenas find abundant rise to sunset. Now the guides absconded, again prey in numerous species of antelopes, and give in their turn abundant sport to the keen hunter. Lions are every where, from the sneaking brute who creeps stealthily upon his ignoble prey, to

they lost their way. Water grew more and more scarce, and at last ceased altogether. The oxen had been four days without water under a tropical sun; their hollow flanks, drooping heads,

fell from exhaustion. He was found by some natives, who gave him drink and fodder, by which means he gradually recovered. He had been seven days without water.

The 1st of July found Mr. Andersson back to the Omaruru River. He had in these hundred days traveled nearly 500 miles-a distance more than sufficient to have taken him to the Cunene and back, had he been able to have kept on a direct course.

this lake, of which the Bushmen gave him glow-
ing accounts. To be sure it was a long way off.
"A youth who should start for it, and travel as
fast as he could, would be an old man before he
returned." But it was a great sea;
"the wa-
ter was like the sky ;" and it abounded in hip-
popotami and other game. The distance, in a
straight line, proved to be about 400 miles; but
there was not a drop of water to be seen in the
lake when they reached it. There was a dried-
up vley, in the centre of which was a patch of
green reeds, among which the natives were ac-
tually digging for water. So Omanbondè-the
"Lake of the Hippopotami"-was set down as
a "dried-up lake," and as such it appears on
recent maps. Now, eight years after, the sea-
son being remarkably dry, Mr. Andersson ex-
pected to find Omanbondè waterless as before.
His surprise was great when he came upon a
fine sheet of water, four or five miles in extent,
abundantly stocked with wild-fowl, and fre-
quented by elephants, rhinoceroses, antelopes,
and lions; but there were no hippopotami. It
was now September. The dry season had set
in, and after making excursions in various di-
rections, Mr. Andersson found that it would be
impossible to proceed until the rainy period had
come and gone. So he remained in this region
until January, 1859, occupying the time in
hunting and making collections in Natural His-
tory.

Foiled in the attempt to reach the river by this route, he resolved to try another. Meanwhile it was necessary to send the wagon back to the station for repairs, which would require a delay of some weeks. The interval was spent in hunting, in a region abounding in elephants. The country seemed to be almost devoid of inhabitants; but somehow, no sooner was an animal killed than the natives flocked around like carrion crows, sure of enjoying a gorge of elephant's flesh-to them the summit of beatitude; Mr. Andersson meanwhile regaling himself with an elephant's foot roasted in the ashes, and a dish of wild honey, which he considers "a meal fit for a king." It was in this region that he met with elephants "walking as thick as cattle." Cronched behind an ant-hill, he was one night watching by a large vley, around which were numerons tracks which denoted that the spot was a favorite resort of elephants. A crackling among the bushes denoted the approach of the royal creatures. First came a dozen young Elephant-hunting is not without its perils. males, but not near enough for a successful shot. Professor Wahlberg, a companion of Mr. Green, They drank and withdrew. Then, nearer to the was not long before killed by an elephant which ambush, came a herd of full-grown bulls, slowly he had wounded. Mr. Andersson relates sevand carefully; a shot, true but not fatal, sent eral hair-breadth escapes. He was once followthese tramping off. Then came a pair of ele- ing up a herd composed mostly of females and phants. Two successive shots killed both. Imyoung, the rear being brought up by a jolly old mediately after a large herd of females and their patriarch who seemed to be the father of the young came trooping down to the water. Herd family. He fired, slightly wounding the old after herd followed them, from different direc- fellow, whereupon the whole retreating column tions, all ranging themselves by the pool side by turned right about and made a furious charge. side, like a line of infantry. He estimated their He threw himself flat on the ground, sheltered numbers at from 100 to 150. The moon was by an insignificant bush. Paterfamilias stophigh in the heavens, shedding a dazzling light|ped a moment, looked about him inquiringly, on the huge beasts. The space between Mr. Andersson and these elephants was too great for a shot, and there was no intervening cover, so that he could not harm them if he wished as they drank. But as they moved off he hurried forward to intercept them. He succeeded in getting a dead shot at the last. The rush and trumpeting which followed was appalling; the herds seemed to yell with rage as they disappeared in the waste. In one night he had killed three elephants. No wonder that after wide experience Mr. Andersson affirms that "a moonlight ambush, beside an African pool frequented by wild animals, is worth all other modes of enjoying a gun put together."

and seeing what he thought to be his enemy made a second dash. The supposed enemy was a tree of considerable size. This he seized and actually tore up by the roots. He stood for a few moments, the very picture of rage, part of the shattered tree clinging to his tusks. The hunter lay still, holding his breath; any movement which betrayed him would have been death. Discovering nothing, the patriarch faced about, and with the rest of the troop was soon lost in the jungle. The African elephants are migratory in their habits, frequenting one region in the wet season and another in the dry. It was often necessary to follow them on foot over the burning plains. This is laborious and harassing work. Mr. Andersson could never track, stalk, and kill his elephant in the open plains, and return to camp in less than ten

After waiting seven weeks Mr. Andersson was rejoined by his wagon, and set off northeastward, still in search of the Cunene, by a route where he hoped water would be found. hours-usually it occupied twelve or sixteen His way led him past Lake Omanbondè. Eight hours; sometimes he was two days and one years before he had set out on an expedition tonight on a single hunt. His native attendants

VOL. XXIV.-No. 139.-C