36 LARGE GAME. chap. i. 



kept upon his spoor, during which time he was twice dis- 

 turbed, and once I fired as I caught a glimpse of him. He 

 made no attempt to break, but on reaching one end of the 

 cover turned back towards the other ; and no doubt while 

 following his spoor I must have more than once passed 

 within a few yards of him standing concealed in the 

 thickets, for the jungle, though long, was quite narrow. 

 At last, towards sunset, when I was thinking of leaving 

 him, two or three dogs which had just arrived with a 

 hunter of mine, getting his wind as he approached the 

 part where their master was standing, rushed in at him, 

 and as he was probably much out of temper at having 

 been kept moving so long, he at once went to bay ; and 

 while I was still a long way off upon the spoor, and from 

 the denseness of the thicket was unable to increase my 

 pace, I heard three shots at intervals, and found on 

 getting up that the hunter had killed him. He turned 

 out to be an unusually large-boned, though thin, animal, 

 and his horns were remarkable for their great breadth 

 and spread. 



On this day, as on many others, I was out from sun- 

 rise to sunset without ever having a shot, unless the 

 glimpse I once had of him can be called so. Good days 

 there certainly are, but the bad ones preponderate ; and 

 many a time I have come empty-handed back to camp 

 after an absence of from twelve to sixteen hours, occa- 

 sionally without firing a shot, and so done up from the 

 heat and want of water, that, although in nine cases out 

 of ten I had not broken my fast since the previous even- 

 ing, I was unable to eat, but, throwing myself down, 

 would sleep till the following morning. Luck in large 



