This had been a pool in the wet weather, but was now dried up, and was nothing but a bed of sedges and high rushes.

I could see nothing of the bull, although I knew he was in it.

The hollow was in the centre of a wide plain, so I knew that the buffalo could not have passed out without my seeing him, and my gun-bearers having come up, I made them pelt the rushes with dried clods of earth.

It was of no use: he would not break cover; so I determined to ride in and hunt him up.
The grass was so thick and entangled with the rushes that my horse could with difficulty force his way through it; and when within the dense mass of vegetation it towered high above my head, and was so thick that I could not see a yard to my right or left.

I beat about to no purpose for about twenty minutes, and I was on the point of giving it up, when I suddenly saw the tall reeds bow down just before me.