128 A BUFFALO HUNT [cu. vt 



shoulder. I killed two or three half-grown pigs for 

 the table, but 1 am sorry to say that I missed several 

 chances at good boars. Finally, one day I got up to 

 just two hundred and fifty yards from a good boar as he 

 stood broadside to me. Firing with the little Spring- 

 field, I put the bullet through both shoulders, and he 

 was dead when we came up. 



But of course the swarms of game consisted of zebra 

 and hartebeest. At no time, when riding in any direc- 

 tion across these plains, were we ever out of sight of 

 them. Sometimes they would act warily, and take the 

 alarm when we were a long distance off. At other 

 times herds would stand and gaze at us while we passed 

 within a couple of hundred yards. One afternoon we 

 needed meat for the safari, and Cuninghame and 1 rode 

 out to get it. Within half a mile we came upon big 

 herds both of hartebeest and zebra. They stood to give 

 me long-range shots at about three hundred yards. I 

 wounded a zebra, after which Cuninghame rode. While 

 he was off, 1 killed first a zebra and then a hartebeest, 

 and shortly afterward a cloud of dust announced that 

 Cuninghame was bringing a herd of game toward me. 

 I knelt motionless, and the long files of red- coated 

 hartebeest and brilliantly striped zebra came galloping 

 past. They were quite a distance off, but 1 had time 

 for several shots at each animal I selected, and 1 

 dropped one more zebra and one more hartebeest, in 

 addition, I regret to add, to w^ounding another harte- 

 beest. The four hartebeest and zebra lay within a space 

 of a quarter of a mile ; and half a mile farther I bagged 

 a tommy at two hundred yards. His meat was for our 

 own table, the kongoni and the zebra being for the 

 safari. 



On another day when Heatley and 1 were out 



