124 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES chap. 



saw fifteen or twenty wild dogs emerge from a 

 small watercourse that we had just crossed. 



When we first saw them they were nearly abreast 

 of us, and not more than 300 or 400 yards to 

 our left. They trotted quietly along, stopping 

 frequently to look at us, as is their wont. We 

 possessed amongst us a large number of dogs, 

 most of them big, rough, powerful mongrels, such as 

 one sees on a Boer farm in the Transvaal. Call- 

 ing to our dogs, we galloped towards their wild 

 cousins, and twelve or fifteen of the former soon 

 rushed past our horses and took up the chase at 

 a great pace. The wild dogs now broke into a 

 gallop, but, strange to say, instead of leaving their 

 pursuers far behind them, they did not seem able 

 to show any great turn of speed. We were soon 

 right amongst them with our horses, and our dogs 

 mobbed and pulled down two, which they held in 

 such a way that they were quite unable to bite. 

 Personally I picked out a fine large wild dog, in 

 good coat, and rode at him. When my horse's fore- 

 feet were almost touching him he suddenly rolled 

 on his back and my horse jumped over him. I 

 galloped over this wild dog several times, and 

 finally shot him. 



During this time my companions had occupied 

 themselves in encouraging our dogs to hold on to 

 the two they had seized, and the rest of the wild 

 pack had galloped off". As each of the two wild 

 dogs that had been caught had been worried for 

 some minutes by five or six assailants, all larger 

 and heavier than itself, we thought they were 

 dead and beat off our dogs. Their two badly used 

 relatives lay quite still and limp, and we dragged 

 them, together with the one I had shot, to a tree 

 near a small stream, where we intended to skin them. 

 All our dogs then went back to the waggons, which 

 had not halted. 



