A BLUE WILDEBEEST HUNT 208 



caper or two, and sets off at a lumbering gallop. 

 Upon the instant the whole troop is alarmed and in 

 motion, and now, following their leader, after various 

 grotesque plunges, flourishes, and caperings peculiar 

 to the gnu species, they swerve left-handed and 

 sweep in a steady business-like fashion, amid a cloud 

 of dust, across the dry plain. Now is the time for 

 the hunting-ponies to show their mettle. They are 

 both in good condition, and as the spurs go in and 

 the knees close upon their ribs they spring forward 

 eagerly, and at their stoutest gallop press after the 

 flying game. But make no mistake ; those appar- 

 ently cumbersome wildebeest, now running a long way 

 ahead, are far faster than their aspect would warrant. 

 The long black hair and upstanding manes about 

 their big heads create a false impression. Look 

 closely at their clean, slender legs, and wiry, mus- 

 cular, bluish-brown frames, and you will at once per- 

 ceive that they are made for galloping. The blue 

 wildebeest when roused can, indeed, run as fast as 

 most antelopes, and his staying powers are of the 

 highest order. The ponies, having now caught sight 

 of the game, are doing their utmost. Dun and 

 chestnut thunder along, cleaving the pale yellow 

 grass that reaches to their bellies, and going, as an 

 Irishman would say, " hell for leather." A long two 

 miles of veldt have been covered and left behind, 

 innumerable holes in the treacherous soil have been 



