FOX-HUNTING IN BECHUAN ALAND 113 



wild, free, and boundless ; not a fence is to be found 

 for a hundred miles; Bechuanaland is at present 

 absolutely open ground. Here and there upon the 

 rolling plains great patches of the grey-green vaal 

 bush, or moJiatla, and occasionally of the thorny 

 acacia {Acacia horrida) mask the soil. These are 

 the haunts of the stealthy duyker, which, as its 

 name (d^oyJcer = the diver) implies, creeps, squats, 

 and dives among the coverts, until absolutely driven 

 out. The dainty steinbok — a small reddish antelope 

 of beautiful appearance — is found indifferently in 

 the open grass-veldt, or among bushes. 



Occasionally the rider must be prepared for a 



rough out-crop of rocks, and boulders, and slipping 



shales, over which somehow or other in the heat cf 



chase — and hounds run every whit as fast in the 



hot sun of Africa after jackal and small buck as after 



the fox at home — he must make his way. Luckily, 



the South African horse — pony Ave may almost call 



him — is a hardy, rough-and-tumble sort of nag, full of 



pluck and sporting spirit; he seldom or never goes 



lame, and, under all sorts of weight, his legs and 



feet stand, day after day, work that would speedily 



put an end to the career of English-bred horseflesh. 



And in South Africa, as at home, when the hounds 



mingle their wild melody, and the horn sounds, your 



nag reaches just as freely at his bit aud strides just as 



keenly as an English-bred one. In October 1890 I 



