92 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



was the most determined colonist I ever met with, 

 and very naturally his determination invariably 

 gave him success. In this instance he and some 

 native servants started digging at an aard-vark 

 about nine o'clock one morning. The animal, when 

 followed in this way, as it digs, blocks up the exit, 

 and with its strong feet pads and packs the earth 

 firmly behind it into a dense wall. When this 

 process goes on, as it did in this case for many 

 hours, and the animal is completely earth-bound, 

 it is extraordinary how it can exist apparently 

 without a suspicion of air. My friend and his 

 natives dug and dug, and the ant-eater pursued 

 his tactics, turning hither and thither yard after yard, 

 hour after hour, until in the end the persistence of 

 the attackers had its reward ; and about five o'clock 

 in the afternoon the aard-vark was dug out quite 

 dead. I suppose the lack of air and the fearful 

 exertions it had undergone had at last killed it. 

 The distance burrowed and dug was, if I remember 

 right, on this occasion, something like thirty-five 

 yards, measured along the zig-zags. The strength 

 of this animal resistive, not aggressive is 

 enormous. Two or three men may get a hold of 

 its tail and hind-quarters as it enters its hole, and 

 yet it shall escape them. The Boers of our district 

 have a legend, that a stout ox-reim (hide-rope) was 

 once fastened to the tail of a burrowing aard-vark, 

 and then tied to the tail of a horse, with the 

 idea of easily extracting the "earth-pig" like a 

 periwinkle from its shell. Sad to relate, the tail 

 of the ant-eater proved more sinewy and resisting 

 than the tail of the horse, and the latter came out 

 of the contest minus his caudal appendage. I will 



