138 ANTELOPES 



great a start, easily turn them from their course by sending a bullet 

 over their heads. So soon as the missile strikes up the sand in front 

 of them, the leaders of the troop wheel round and often head in a 

 nearly contrary direction, thus affording the hunter a fair chance. In 

 this way I have turned a large troop two or three times in a single 

 early morning run, even when they were nearing the bush for which 

 they were heading, and have thus been enabled to obtain a fair shot, 

 and bring down the beast I wanted. In country where a certain 

 amount of shooting goes on, blue wildebeest, if a river is near, usually 

 drink during the night, cross the plains at early morning, and feed on 

 the far side near the bush in which they take shelter when pursued, or 

 during the heat of the day. If the hunter quits his waggon or camp 

 very early, he will probably find the troop feeding towards seven o'clock 

 not far from the fringe of this bush. If, on sighting the game with his 

 glass, he takes a big sweep, he will most probably be able to place 

 himself and his after-rider between the still-unsuspecting game and the 

 line of bush, when, showing himself, he will find himself placed at a 

 singular advantage. The wildebeest become flurried, and at once 

 make a dash for the nearest point of bush, but are intercepted by one 

 of the two mounted men and driven from their point. They then turn, 

 race round in a semicircle, and try for another part of the bush. 

 Again they are headed off, and at length losing their heads, after 

 dashing hither and thither in a vain attempt to make good their point, 

 and becoming for the time completely out-manosuvred, they finally 

 make the shelter of the bush at a more distant angle, leaving one or 

 two of their number down, and perhaps another badly wounded. In 

 regions where they are little molested the hunter, especially in thickly- 

 bushed country, or open park-like forest, is enabled to shoot blue 

 wildebeest more easily than upon flat plains, as he can avail himself 

 of covert, and often encounters the game within comparatively short 

 range. Stalking these antelopes on foot is seldom practised in South 

 Africa, where horses can in most cases be employed for hunting purposes, 

 as it is desperately fatiguing work, and the gunner is hardly likely to 

 make any considerable bag among such alert, suspicious, and fleet 

 animals. In East and Central Africa, on the other hand, where horses 

 cannot be used, these gnu are occasionally shot by unmounted hunters, 

 " The blue wildebeest possesses an even more than average share 

 of that vitality for which nearly all African antelopes are famous ; and 

 unless hit in the right place — through the heart, lungs, or liver — will 

 frequently, even when most severely wounded, make good its escape. 

 I have shot a bull right through the lungs, and found numerous 



