SWARMS OF FLIES OOLOGY. 91 



good many miles beyond his encampment, to which ho 

 advised me at once to proceed and hunt in its vicinity. 

 He represented that district as not having been recent- 

 ly disturbed by hunters, and doubted not but I should 

 find gemsbok and other varieties of game abundant 



It being now summer, flies prevailed in fearful 

 swarms in the abodes of the Boers, attracted thither by 

 the smell of meat and milk. On entering Stinkum's 

 house, I found the walls of his large sitting-room actu- 

 ally black with these disgusting insects. They are a 

 cruel plague to the settlers in Southern Africa, and it 

 often requires considerable ingenuity to eat one's din- 

 ner or drink a cup of coffee without consuming a num- 

 ber of them. When food is served up, two or three 

 Hottentots or Bush-girls are always in attendance with 

 fans made of ostrich feathers, which they keep continu- 

 ally waving over the food till the repast is finished. 



This morning I purchased a handsome chestnut pony 

 from a Boer named Duprey, a field cornet, from whom 

 I obtained an egg of the bustard of the largest species 

 for my collection, oology being a subject in which for 

 many years of my life I had taken great interest, hav- 

 ing in my possession one of the finest collections in 

 Great Britain, amassed with much toil and danger. I 

 have descended most of the loftiest precipices in the 

 central Highlands of Scotland, and along the sea-shore, 

 with a rope round my wais,'t, in quest of the eggs of the 

 various eagles and falcons which have their eyries in 

 those almost inaccessible situations. Among Stink- 

 um's stud was a handsome brown gelding, to which 1 

 took a great fancy ; and after consulting for some time 

 with his wife, he made up his mind to part with him 

 The lowest price was to be i£18. After a good deal of 

 bargaining, however, I persuaded him to part with hira 



