i8 SOLDIER AND SPORTSMAN 



days was in the mail cart — a light wagon drawn 

 by trotting bullocks. Generally a span of eight 

 oxen was sufficient. In front of these ran the 

 vore looper, a native who was replaced every 

 four or five miles by another, that being about the 

 distance a man could comfortably keep running 

 at a pace of eight miles an hour. These primi- 

 tive veldt paths twist about in an extraordinary 

 manner, and it was astonishing that very few 

 accidents occurred. On one occasion when we 

 were travelling in the mail the bullocks shied off the 

 road. I stopped the cart to investigate the reason 

 and, about twenty yards from the pathway, found 

 the corpse of a white man, far gone in decay. 

 What added to the sadness of the discovery was 

 the body of a dog lying beside him, probably a 

 mongrel greyhound. The case of course was 

 reported and a decent burial on the spot given 

 by a file of men from the nearest camp. The 

 strange thing to me was that the bullocks should 

 have shied at the smell of a decayed human corpse 

 when they paid no attention to the rotting carcasses 

 of animals, of which there were many. 



Shortly after arriving at the Maclonstie, one of 

 our camps on the river of that name, one of the 

 officers named Walford and I were riding together, 

 doing some topographical work, when we came 

 upon a group of eight young wart-hogs. Jump- 



