210 



HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



These poor men were travelling in quest of employment. Num 

 bers of natives annually visit the colony, and work for the Boers, 

 making stone enclosures for their cattle, and large dams or em- 

 bankments across little streams in the mouths of valleys, for the 

 purpose of collecting water in the rainy season for the supply of 

 their flocks and herds during the protracted droughts of summer, 

 They are paid for their labor with young cows or she-goats. The 

 recent rains having washed away the embankment of a dam 

 situated in a distant range of hills, on the borders of- the farm, 

 Strydom engaged these men to repair it. The vicinity of the dam 

 being a favorite haunt for quaggas, and it being necessary that 

 Strydom should go there on the morrow, we resolved to hunt in 

 the neighboring district, in which were situated some high and 

 rugged hills. Accordingly, next day, we sallied forth, and I 

 ascended to one of their highest pinnacles, where I managed tc 

 shoot a rhode-raebok. Joining Strydom shortly afterward, we 

 Hunted over another range of the same hills, where we fell ir 

 with three quaggas and other game. 



THE QCAOOA, 



