me ten yards
in diameter, completely hemming in the great python, who was now
wideawake and rapidly circling the interior of his prison, in an
atrociously bad temper, vainly seeking some spot through which he might
force his way and escape. But the monkeys had evidently known quite
well what they were about; instinct or observation had taught them that,
once completely surrounded by a ring of thorns, the creature could not
possibly escape, because its every effort would result in the
self-infliction of so many severe wounds that it would rather remain a
prisoner than persevere. And that was precisely what was happening; the
moment that, in attempting to crawl over the barrier, the python's
ponderous weight was thrown upon the encircling fence, the long, sharp
thorns pierced it in twenty or thirty places, and already, as it circled
inside the enclosure, it was leaving a broad trail of blood behind it
and emitting a powerful, sickening, musky odour which I only endured
with difficulty. The creature glared at me murderously every time it
came opposite me in its frantic circling of the scherm, and once made a
determined effort to reach me, but the thorns were too much for it; and
finally, when I was at length convinced that it could not possibly
escape, I levelled my rifle and sent a bullet crashing through its
enormous head, instantly thereafter beating a hasty retreat from the top
of the rock, in order to avoid the terrific threshing of its
convolutions, which now, in its death agonies, sent the thorns flying in
all directions.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

AN EXCITING DAY.

By the time that Piet and I got back to the wagon it was within an hour
of sunset; I therefore decided to remain for the night where we were,
the grass being good, and our outspan situated within half a mile of a
considerable stream of water with which we should lose touch upon
entering the gorge, since the river turned eastward immediately opposite
the spot where we were outspanned. But although I decided not to move
the wagon until the morrow, I was not disposed to remain personally
inactive; for I had observed that about two miles to the eastward the
river flowed through a slight depression, which had thus become
converted into a water vley, or wide sheet of shallow water, where I
thought it not improbable that I might find a few widgeon to afford a
welcome change from the buck meat that had now become our almost
continuous fare. Moreover, I had be