28 THE PLEISTOCENE AGE [ch. i 



settled rutting-time or breeding-time ; at least, we saw 

 calves of all ages. 



Our hunt after wildebeest this afternoon was success- 

 ful ; but, though by veldt law each animal was mine 

 because I hit it first, yet in reality the credit was com- 

 munistic, so to speak, and my share was properly less 

 than that of others. I first tried to get up to a solitary 

 old bull, and after a good deal of manceu^'ring, and by 

 taking advantage of a second rain squall, I got a standing 

 shot at him at four hundred yards, and hit him, but too 

 far back. Although keeping a good distance away, he 

 tacked and veered so, as he ran, that by much running 

 myself I got various otlier shots at him, at very long 

 range, but missed them all, and he finally galloped over 

 a distant ridge, his long tail switching, seemingly not 

 much the worse. We followed on horseback, for I hate 

 to let any wounded thing escape to suffer. But mean- 

 while he had run into view of Kermit ; and Kermit — 

 who is of an age and build which better fit him for 

 successful breakneck galloping over unknown country 

 dotted with holes and bits of rotten ground — took up 

 the chase with enthusiasm. Yet it M^as sunset, after 

 a run of six or eight miles, when he finally ran into and 

 killed the tough old bull, which had turned to bay, 

 snorting and tossing its horns. 



Meanwhile I managed to get within three hundred 

 and fifty yards of a herd, and picked out a large cow 

 which was unaccompanied by a calf. Again my bullet 

 went too far back, and I could not hit the animal at 

 that distance as it ran. But after going half a mile it 

 lay down, and would have been secured without diffi- 

 culty if a wretched dog had not run forward and put it 

 up. My horse was a long way back ; but Pease, who 

 had been looking on at a distance, was mounted, and 



