CH. xviii ELAND BULL SHOT 373 



ing his victim, which stood, poor thing, on the 

 farther side of a gully, looking ruefully with his 

 soft brown eyes upon his destroyer. What a grand- 

 looking beast an eland bull is, with his heavy though 

 shapely body, low hanging dewlap, fine clean-cut 

 limbs, and small game-looking head ! He is one 

 of those stately creatures that few reflecting men 

 can slay without regret, and fewer still, I hope, 

 would kill for sport alone, leaving the carcase to 

 rot in the wilderness or fatten the wolves and 

 vultures ; but at the same time, it is as necessary 

 for the hunter, upon whose rifle, perhaps, a score of 

 hungry savages are dependent for food from day to 

 day, to shoot many beautiful and harmless animals, 

 as it is for a butcher in a civilised land to poleaxe 

 an ox. 



We now drove him gently along to a hole of water, 

 some distance down the gully before mentioned, when 

 a bullet put a term to his misery. He had a very 

 pretty, even pair of horns, with white tips, which 

 measured 2 feet 4 inches in length. 



The following day, September 24, we made an 

 early start, still keeping a north-easterly course, and 

 at about 10 a.m., within a few miles of the Hanyane 

 river, crossed the fresh spoor of a troop of elephant 

 bulls, which of course we followed, and as they were 

 feeding quietly along, it was hardly noon when we 

 sighted them. At the same moment they got our 

 wind, and ran. There were, I think, nine altogether, 

 five of which we shot, the other four, I am sorry to 

 say, making good their escape. Those we shot were 

 all old animals. Two carried tusks weighing 60 lbs. 

 apiece, within a pound or two, and those of the 

 other three were all over 40 lbs. each. There being 

 water close by, we camped where we were. On the 



