SOUTH AFRICA 29 



their lULtive land they were asked what impressed 

 them most, and they repHed that the beautiful 

 pictures on the houses in the city and on the 

 travelling wagons, alluding of course to adver- 

 tisements, filled them with astonishment and awe. 

 They had witnessed military reviews, in fact all 

 the pageantry of war, and their minds could only 

 grasp the trivialities — so much for trying to educate 

 the black man in a hurry. 



One of the small excursions I made from 

 Maclontsie was to, and along the borders of, the 

 Kalahari Desert. This time I took what we 

 called a Scotch cart, with a half-bred bushman 

 named Wilson and a couple of greyhounds. I 

 had always been anxious to see how they would 

 perform against the larger antelope. 



The hartebeest antelope is in my opinion the 

 fastest animal that lives, for a short distance ; to 

 prove this I made several attempts to slip a couple 

 of greyhounds at one of these beautiful creatures. 

 To have a fair trial, the veldt should be sufficiently 

 clear of bush and the going good, and it should 

 be arranged that the dogs be brought into view 

 together ; also one should manoeuvre to get close 

 enough to the hartebeest before the dogs are 

 slipped. I had my camp about a mile from a 

 vley where the grass was just beginning to grow, 

 while the veldt all round was almost clear of scrub. 



