HUNTING THE ELAND. 289 



They led me along the bases of the mountains, through woody dells 

 and open glades, and we eventually reached a grand forest gray 

 with age. Here we found abundance of spoor of a variety of 

 game, and started several herds of the more common varieties. 

 At length I observed an old bull eland standing inder a tree. He 

 was the first that I had seen, and was a noble specimen, standing 

 about six feet high at the shoulder. Observing us, h<? made olf at 

 a gallop, springing over the trunks of decayed trees which lay 

 across his path ; but very soon he reduced his pace to a trot. 

 Spurring my horse, another moment saw me riding hard behind 

 him. Twice in the thickets I lost sight of him, and he very 

 nearly escaped me ; but at length, the ground improving, I came 

 up with him, and rode within a few yards behind him. Long 

 streaks of foam now streamed from his mouth, and a profuse per- 

 spiration had changed his sleek gray coat to an ashy blue. Tears 

 trickled from his large dark eye, and it was plain that the eland's 

 hours were numbered. Pitching my rifle to my shoulder, I let 

 fly at the gallop, and mortally wounded him behind ; then spurring 

 my horse, I shot past him on his right side, and discharged my 

 other barrel behind his shoulder, when the eland staggered for a 

 moment and subsided in the dust. The two Baquaines soon 

 made their appearance, and seemed delighted at my success. 

 Having kindled a fire, they cut out steaks, which they roasted on 

 the embers : I also cooked a steak for myself, spitting it upon a 

 forked branch, the other end of which I sharpened with my knifa 

 and stuck into the ground. 



Of the rhinoceros there are four varieties in South Africa, distin- 

 guished by the Bechuanas by the names of the borele, or black 

 rhinoceros, the keitloa, or two-horned black rhinoceros, the mucho- 

 cho, or common white rhinoceros, and the kobaoba, or long-horned 

 vhite rhinoceros. Both varieties of the black rhinoceros are ex- 

 tremely fierce and dangerous, and rush headlong and unprovoked 

 at any object which attracts their attention. They never attain 

 much fat, and their flesh is tough, and not much esteemed by the 

 Bechuanas. Their food consists almost entirely of the thorny 



brai -*><* if the wait-a-bit thorns. Their horns are much shorter 

 19 



