WILD GEESE AND OTHER GAME. 9S 



lion, and he had also come upon the carcasses of both 

 rotting on the plain, the body of the lion being trans- 

 fixed by the long, sharp horns of the powerful gemsbok 

 so that he could not extract them, and thus both had 

 perished together. He also mentioned that, notwith- 

 standing the agility of the springbok, he had often 

 known the lion dash to the ground two, three, and four 

 in quick succession in a troop. 



Four of my oxen being footsore and unable to pro- 

 ceed, I left them in charge of old Sweirs, and in the 

 cool of the evening I inspanned, and, having proceeded 

 about five miles through an extremely wild and deso- 

 late-looking country, on clearing a neck in a range of 

 low, rocky hills I came full in view of the vley or pool 

 of water beside which I had been directed to encamp. 

 The breadth of this vley was about three hundred 

 yards. One side of it was grassy, and patronized by 

 several flocks of Egyptian wild geese, a species of bar- 

 nacle, wild ducks, egrets, and cranes. The other side 

 was bare, and here the game drank, and the margin 

 of the water was trampled by the feet of wild animals 

 like an English horse-pond. There being no trees be- 

 side which to form our camp, we drew up our wagons 

 among some low bushes, about four hundred yards 

 from the vley. When the sun went down I selected 

 the three horses which were to carry myself and two 

 after-riders in the chase of the unicorn on the following 

 morning, and directed my boys to give them a liberal 

 supply of forage to eat during the night.* 



* The oryx, or gemsbok, to which I was now about to direct my at- 

 tention more particularly, is about the most beautiful and remarkabl't 

 of all the antelope tribe. It is the animal which is supposed to havt* 

 given rise to the fable of the unicorn, from its long, straight horns, when 

 «een, en profile, so exactly covering one another as to give it the ap- 

 ^•arance of having but one. It possesses the erect mane, long, sv^^eej-*- 



