132 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



fresh indications of our game. Keeping what wind 

 there was well in our faces, we now hastened 

 cautiously forward, until in another mile we reached 

 a shoulder of the mountain-side. Here Igneese 

 again hit off the spoor, and very quietly we crept 

 through some bushes till we could obtain a better 

 view of the hill before us. At length, straight 

 in front of us, uphill some 700 yards distant, we 

 could see five rhebok, their grey forms showing so 

 indistinctly from the rocks amongst which they 

 grazed, that for some time I looked in vain. The 

 ground directly between us and them was so open, 

 that it was impossible to approach more closely 

 from our present position ; there was, therefore, no 

 help for it but to creep back, ascend the mountain 

 rather higher up, where the covert lay better, and 

 then stalk in as well as we could. 



After an exceedingly long and careful stalk, 

 and by dint of crawling some 200 yards on our 

 stomachs, we had managed to creep to within 

 140 yards of the herd. To approach nearer, 

 without disturbing the antelopes, was impossible ; 

 so, after waiting a short time, in the vain hope that 

 they might graze towards us, and after motioning 

 to one another which side to shoot, we took steady 

 aim and fired. 



The rhebok I had selected half fell to the shot, 

 but was quickly up again and struggling after the 

 rest uphill ; the Kaffir had missed clean, much to 

 his chagrin. The wounded buck only ran for about 

 a quarter of a mile, and we were luckily able to keep 

 it in view, and in a very short time Igneese's knife 

 put an end to its dying struggles. My bullet had 

 smashed the angle of its shoulder, and, after passing 



