CHAPTER XLTX. 







HUNTING THE BUSTARD AND ELAND. 



A.T an early hour on the morning of the 6th, pays Mr. Gumming, 

 while I was yet in bod, TIendric Strydom and his frau wen; standing 

 over my fire, alongside of my wagon, with a welcome supply of sweet 

 milk, and hurrying on the indolent Hottentots to prepare iuy break- 

 fast, and rouse their slothful master^ the earliest dawn being, as he 

 affirmed, the best time to go after the springboks. On hearing their 

 voices, I rose, and having breakfasted, we shouldered our " roors." 

 walked about a mile across the plain, and took up positions behind 

 two very low bushes, about three hundred yards apart, and iustriK tc-1 

 our Hottentots' to endeavor to drive the springbok* towa' .Is us. V\ C 

 had two beats, but were unlucky both times, each of us wounding 

 and losing a springbok. In the evening we went out again to !m;it 

 on the same principle, on a very wide flat to the west of hi> house, 

 where we lay down behind very low bushes, in the middle of the 

 bucks. We lay there on our breasts for two hours, with herds of 

 springboks moving all round us, our Hottentots manoeuvring in (lie 

 di.stauce. One small troop came within shot of me, when I sent my 

 bullet, spinning through a graceful doe, which bounded forward a 

 hundred yards, a:id, staggering for a moment, fell over and expired. 

 A little after this, I suddenly perceived a large paow or bustard 

 walking on the plain before me. These birds are very wary, an 1 

 difficult to approach. I thi refore resolved to have a phot at him, 

 and lay like a piece of rock until he came within range, wlidii I sent 

 a bullet through him. He managed, however, to fly about a quartei 

 of a mile, when he alighted ; and, on going up to the place half an hour 

 after, I found him lying dead, with his head stuck into a bus', of heath. 



On the 15th, I- took leave of my friends, at Kuruman, a'-iJ uuu- 



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