X HUNTING LECH WE ANTELOPES i8i 



The meat of the water-buck is usually considered to 

 be more unpalatable than that of any other South 

 African antelope ; but, if it will give any one satis- 

 faction to know it, I can conscientiously say that that 

 ot the pookoo is several shades worse. In conclusion, 

 I have found that they and their congener the lechwe 

 are wonderfully tenacious of life, and will run long 

 distances after receiving wounds that one would think 

 ought to be immediately fatal. But to resume. 



Breakfast over, we continued our journey west- 

 wards, following the course of the river ; and about 

 mid-day fell in with some natives, who had come 

 across from the island on which their little village 

 was situated to collect firewood. Two of these men 

 I at once recognised as individuals who had taken 

 me in their canoe to shoot lechwe buck during the 

 preceding month, and on their asking me if I would 

 not try my luck again (for on the former occasion 

 I had been unsuccessful), I promptly accepted the 

 invitation. After giving my own Kafirs directions 

 to prepare a camp on a point of land a little farther 

 on, I stepped into the canoe, and started for the 

 flooded land on the other side of the river. On 

 passing the little village, and our object being made 

 known to the inhabitants, several men and boys 

 jumped into their canoes and followed us, hoping 

 to come in for a share of the meat, should I be 

 successful in killing anything. The paddles were 

 then laid aside, and the canoes propelled by means 

 of long poles with a fork at the end, towards a bit 

 of land about a mile distant, that rose slightly above 

 the water's level. The average depth was about two 

 feet, but in places it was so shallow that, there not 

 being sufficient water to float the canoes, the natives 

 had to get out and drag them along until it became 



