A STRANGE ACCIDENT 89 



fired at the largest bull ; he lurched half-way 

 round, sinking partly on his haunches. But 

 he at once sprang up and fled like the wind, 

 completely distancing the other four. I fol- 

 lowed, putting old Prince on his mettle from 

 the start, for the Kanya was only about five 

 miles away, and the wounded oryx was making 

 straight for it. 



The speed of the wounded animal 

 slackened ; not to any great extent, but enough 

 to permit of the others slowly overtaking and 

 then drawing ahead of him. When he reached 

 the edge of the Kanya tract I was about to give 

 up the pursuit in despair, when the animal 

 swayed in a peculiar way and then stood still, 

 so I rode up and finished him. Then I found 

 that the bone of his left fetlock had been 

 freshly broken. My first bullet had, without 

 touching the bone, passed through his right 

 hind leg just where the great muscles of the 

 haunch harden and thin down into sinew. The 

 stroke of the heavy, leaden missile must have 

 caused a severe mechanical shock. This, 

 under stress of the gallop, evidently translated 

 itself into stiffness, which occasioned leaning 

 with undue heaviness on the sound leg. The 

 oryx was crossing a strip of Kanya not more 

 than twelve feet wide when the accident hap- 



