246 SOUTH AFRICA. 



occasion the Boers fired from behind rocks, which 

 protected them completely from the effects of the 

 horizontal fire of the enemy, whom they could pot 

 at on an exposed plain on which marks indicating 

 distances had been placed. Moreover, the poor 

 raiders and their horses were too exhausted by 

 hunger, thirst, and long marches to be able to 

 attempt either an assautl or a retreat ; and yet, 

 with all this in their favour, these redoubtable 

 burghers were only able to kill twenty-two of 

 Dr. Jameson's men, in addition to a few minor 

 casualties, with an expenditure of, at the very least, 

 6,000 cartridges. The result can, therefore, only 

 rank as a record of very poor shooting at best. 



Had these burghers shot up to anything like 

 their reputation for skill, they would have swept 

 the plain of all but the killed and wounded in a 

 few minutes with, perhaps, a very few exceptions. 



Reverting to some of the incidents which occurred 

 during the buffalo hunt in the fly country, I can 

 confidently say that although since then more years 

 have elapsed than I care to count, my recollection 

 of the experience is as vivid as if the occurrence 

 had been quite a recent event, as many of the 

 eventualities were exceptional and unique among 

 my experiences. 



