A SHOT AT AN ANTELOPE. 355 



On the occasion I am describing, two of my com- 

 panions, Messrs. George Sears and Delmot, joined me in 

 the chase. 



We started in single file; but soon, behind a clump of 

 cotton-trees, our dogs hit upon a scent, and I dashed off 

 after them along a little rivulet winding and murmuring 

 through the herbage. I forgot to call to my two friends, 

 and rode a league " in hot haste " and without a pause. 

 Black and Stop, whose headlong course almost distanced 

 my splendid mare, drove before them a magnificent ante- 

 lope, who, unfortunately, had got very much the start of 

 his pursuers. Having reached the summit of a moderate 

 ascent, I perceived in front of me a yawning ravine, open- 

 ing at right-angles with the upper waters of the brook. 

 Thither I directed my horse, in the somewhat uncertain 

 hope that the animal would make for the same point, in 

 order to seek a passage into the broad savannah beyond. 



I had scarcely time to hide my horse behind a clump 

 of stunted bashes, and to stretch myself on the ground, 

 concealed by the inequalities of the ravine and the high 

 grass which covered them, before the two spiral horns of 

 the antelope rose clearly defined against the azure sky, 

 and soon I distinctly caught sight of the animal, with the 

 two dogs at his heels, coming, with swift bounds and 

 leaps, right in my direction. 



" He is a dead creature ! " thought I to myself, selling 

 the skin of the antelope before I had brought him to the 

 earth. 



The animal galloped at such a rate that he was not 

 more than two hundred paces from me, when I perceived 

 three jets of smoke rise simultaneously at his side, and 

 the vibrating air repeated the discharge of three muskets ; 



