ok, and happily its stores are inexhaustible. The other
works they had read over and over again, till they declared that they
could no longer look at them with patience. The heat was so great, that
we were compelled to camp during the middle of the day, finding that we
could make more progress by travelling early in the morning and again in
the evening.

We had travelled on since daylight, when a group of trees, which are
found here and there even on the desert, gladdened our eyes. We unyoked
our weary oxen beneath them, and sought such shelter as their branches
would afford; but not a drop or sign of water was to be seen round them.
It seemed surprising how they could exist in that arid spot. Fires
were lighted to cook the remnant of our provisions, though they also had
fallen very short. We were seated at our meal, when Stanley started up,
exclaiming, "We must have some of those fellows! Who will come with
me?" He pointed eastward--the quarter whence the wind blew--and there I
saw, moving slowly over the plain, and cropping the scanty herbage as
they went, a large herd of antelopes.

"I will," I said, "if I can have a horse."

"You shall have mine," said Senhor Silva.

"I must go with you!" exclaimed Donald Fraser, gulping down the largest
part of the contents of an ostrich egg.

Donald having giving directions for the caravan to move on, and
appointed their halting--place, we mounted our horses, intending to meet
it there at night, and galloped off towards the herd. I imitated my
companions' attitude of leaning down, so as to conceal my head as much
as possible, that we might get near without alarming the herd, keeping
to leeward. Some time passed before they were aware of our approach.

"They are hartbeests," said Donald, "and will give us a good chase; but
we may get within shot of them at last."

There was no shelter which would enable us to stalk them, and we
therefore had to trust to their not taking alarm at the appearance of
our horses. We rode on and on, and every instant I expected to see them
start off, and scamper away fleet as the wind. They were noble-looking
animals, with large horns rising on a line with their foreheads, and
then bending curiously backwards. We rode on till we got within a
hundred yards of them, when a wary old buck caught sight of us, and,
suspicious of evil, gave the alarm to his companions.

"On, boys, on!" cried Donald, who had been watching for their expected