TERRIFIC STORAL 141 



much too heavy to act as after-rider, and by the little 

 Bushboy named Ruyter, who had joined me on the 

 plains of the karroo. This Bushboy, although he had 

 learned to ride among the Boers, had an indifferent seat 

 on horseback, and would never push his horse to over- 

 take any antelope if the ground were at all rough. 



Having explored the country to a considerable dis- 

 tance, in the course of which we fell in with four sas- 

 sabies and a troop of hartebeests, I resolved to make for 

 home, as the darkening sky and distant thunder to tlie 

 southward threatened a heavy storm. I had not long, 

 however, determined on returning, when the wind, 

 which had been out of the nortii, suddenly veered round, 

 and blew hard from the south. In less than half an 

 hour ihe rain descended in torrents, the wind blew ex- 

 tremely cold, and the rain beat right in my face ; the 

 peals of thunder were most appalling, the most fear- 

 ful, I think, I had ever heard, the forked lightning 

 dancing' above and around me w4th such vividness as 

 to pain my eyes : I thought every moment would be 

 my last. I shifted my saddle from " Sunday" to " The 

 Cow," and we pricked along at a smart pace. We 

 were entering a thicket of thorny bushes, when a very 

 large gray-looking antelope stood up under one of them. 

 I could not see his head, but I at once knew that it 

 was the long-sought- for roan antelope, or bastard gems- 

 bok. CaroUus quickly handed me my little Moore ri- 

 fle, secure from the pelting storm in one of Mr. Hugh 

 Snowie's patent water-proof covers. The noble buck 

 now bounded forth, a superb old male, carrying a pair 

 of grand cimeter-shaped horns. He stood nearly five 

 feet high at the shoulder. " The Cow" knew well what 

 he had to do, and set off after him with right good will 

 over a most impracticable country. It was a sncce.s 



