HERDS OF SPRINGBOKS. 67 



which I had been doing, although highly exhilarating, 

 was not the way to fill the bag. Delight at beholding 

 so much noble game in countless herds on their native 

 plains was uppermost in my mind, and I felt that at 

 last I had reached the borders of those glorious hunt- 

 ing-lands, the accounts of which had been my chief in- 

 ducements to visit this remote and desolate corner of 

 the globe; and I rejoiced that I had not allowed the 

 advice of my acquaintances to influence my move- 

 ments. 



As I rode along in the intense and maddening excite- 

 ment of the chase, I felt a glad feeling of unrestrained 

 freedom, which was common to me during my career 

 in Africa, and which I had seldom so fully experienced ; 

 and notwithstanding the many thorns which surround- 

 ed my roses during the many days and nights of toil 

 and hardship which I afterward encountered, I shall 

 ever refer to those times as by far the brightest and 

 happiest of my life. On the following morning I rode 

 through the Bralc River to visit Mynheer Pocheter, with 

 the intention of buying some horses from him, but he 

 had none to dispose of I met the old fellow coming in 

 from the "feldt," with his long single-barreled roer and 

 enormous flint-lock, with the usual bullock's-horn pow- 

 3er-flask dangling at his side. He had gone out with 

 his Hottentot before the dawn of day, and taken up a 

 position in a little neck in an vmeven part of the plain, 

 through which the springbok's were in the habit of pass- 

 ing before sunrise. In places of this description the 

 Boers build little watch ing-placcs with flat stones, from 

 which they generally obtain a shot every morning and 

 evening, and at such distances as to insure success 

 To use their own words, " they secure a buck from these 

 places, skot for skot," meaning a buck for every shot. 



