The Fresh Additions Of Water Required In Cooking Meat,
Each Imparting Its Own Portion Of Salt, Make One Grumble At The Cook
For Putting Too Much Seasoning In, While In Fact He Has Put In None At All,
Except That Contained In The Water.
Of bitter, bad, disgusting waters
I have drunk not a few nauseous draughts; you may try alum, vitriol, boiling,
Etc., etc., to convince yourself that you are not more stupid than travelers
you will meet at home, but the ammonia and other salts are there still;
and the only remedy is to get away as quickly as possible to the north.
We dug out several wells; and as we had on each occasion to wait
till the water flowed in again, and then allow our cattle
to feed a day or two and slake their thirst thoroughly,
as far as that could be done, before starting, our progress was but slow.
At Koobe there was such a mass of mud in the pond, worked up
by the wallowing rhinoceros to the consistency of mortar,
that only by great labor could we get a space cleared at one side
for the water to ooze through and collect in for the oxen.
Should the rhinoceros come back, a single roll in the great mass
we had thrown on one side would have rendered all our labor vain.
It was therefore necessary for us to guard the spot at night.
On these great flats all around we saw in the white sultry glare
herds of zebras, gnus, and occasionally buffaloes, standing for days,
looking wistfully toward the wells for a share of the nasty water.
It is mere wanton cruelty to take advantage of the necessities of these
poor animals, and shoot them down one after another, without intending
to make the smallest use of either the flesh, skins, or horns.
In shooting by night, animals are more frequently wounded than killed;
the flowing life-stream increases the thirst, so that in desperation they
come slowly up to drink in spite of the danger, "I must drink, though I die."
The ostrich, even when not wounded, can not, with all his wariness,
resist the excessive desire to slake his burning thirst.
It is Bushman-like practice to take advantage of its piteous necessities,
for most of the feathers they obtain are procured in this way;
but they eat the flesh, and are so far justifiable.
I could not order my men to do what I would not do myself,
but, though I tried to justify myself on the plea of necessity,
I could not adopt this mode of hunting. If your object is to secure
the best specimens for a museum, it may be allowable, and even
deserving of commendation, as evincing a desire to kill only those
really wanted; but if, as has been practiced by some Griquas and others
who came into the country after Mr. Cumming, and fired away indiscriminately,
great numbers of animals are wounded and allowed to perish miserably,
or are killed on the spot and left to be preyed on by vultures and hyenas,
and all for the sole purpose of making a "bag", then I take it to be evident
that such sportsmen are pretty far gone in the hunting form of insanity.
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