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13

Camp. Bates and I went up the river in the vain hope of intercepting a lion on his way to water, but I fancy they are pretty wa^[[insertion]]r[[/insertion]]y here now. Saw some fresh spoor & followed it as far as we could, but the ground is too hard & dry.
We were walking along the river bank ^[[insertion]] about 25 yards apart [[/insertion]] when I heard Bates whistle & saw him jump. I seized my rifle & hastily joined him to find he had nearly trodden on a python asleep. A couple of bullets and some good whacks on the head despatched him, though his muscular power was tremendous for a [[underlined]] long [[/underlined]] time & we had a job to skin him. After doing a good big circle we we were heading towards camp when we came across 3 gerenuk, 1 buck & 2 does. The buck was too inquisitive & stood looking at me and I shot him through the chest standing. While we were skinning his head, the porter arrived having come across another python which they had killed, though I gather he nearly got one boy during the contest. On the way home I shot a pretty fair Impala ram and a Marabout.
C had had a blank morning. I shall probably go out for an hour or two this evening near camp.