74 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



the plain, and took up positions behind two very low 

 bushes, about three hundred yards apart, and instruct- 

 ed our Hottentots to endeavor to drive the springboks 

 toward us. We had two beats, but were unlucky both 

 times, each of us wounding and losing a springbok. In 

 the evening we went out again to hunt on the same 

 principle, on a very wide flat to the west of his 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 maneuvering in the distance. One 

 small troop came within shot of me, when I sent my 

 bullet spinning through a graceful doe, which bounded 

 forward a hundred yards, and, 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 and difficult to 

 approach. I therefore resolved to have a shot at him, 

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

 when I sent a bullet through him. He managed, how- 

 ever, to fly about a quarter of a mile, when he alight- 

 ed ; and on going up to the place half an hour after, I 

 found him lying dead, with his head stuck into a bush 

 of heath. 



Strydom had two family shots, and brought down 

 with each a well-conditioned buck. In high good- 

 humor with our success, we now proceeded to gralloch 

 or disembowel the quarry ; after which, each of us 

 shouldering a buck, we returned home in heavy march- 

 ing order. On the following day I had the pleasure of 

 beholding the first flight of locusts that I had seen since 

 my arrival in the colony. We were standing in the 

 middle of a plain of unlimited length, and about five 

 miles across, when I observed them advancing:. On 



