216 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



retraced ray steps once more up wind, and, after pro- 

 ceeding a little further than I had been before, I saw 

 " Alert," a very uncertain animal which I had long 

 possessed, returning toward me. 



The dogs have then gone up wind, I thought to my- 

 self, and they have the buck at bay in advance. Next 

 moment, however, to my utter amazement, I beheld 

 my wounded potaquaine standing in the forest below 

 me, and not a single dog near him. I was now sure 

 that my dogs had fallen in with some other bucks which 

 I was not aware of, and were gone I knew not whither. 

 After waiting an hour for them, I endeavored to stalk 

 in on the potaquaine: it was bad ground, and he saw 

 me and made off. He went but a short distance, how- 

 ever, and stood again in a drooping attitude beneath a 

 tree ; the Bechuanas tried to drive him to a position 

 which I took up, when he left the ground, and I never 

 saw him again. 



When I returned to my camp, my people told me 

 that the dogs had bayed a buck for a long time under 

 the mountain, within hearing of the wagons, and that 

 the sounds had died away, as if they had pulled him 

 down and killed him. On hearing this, I at once sad- 

 dled up two steeds, and rode in that direction to seek 

 my dogs, but saw nothing of them, and, night setting 

 in, I returned to camp. Next day three of the dogs re- 

 turned ; they were covered with the blood of the pota- 

 quaine they had killed, and one of them was wounded 

 by his horns. I, however, never found the remains of 

 either this buck or the one I had shot, nor did I see 

 more of my three good dogs which were missing; no 

 doubt they had all been found by the natives, and stolen 

 by them. 



I resolved on the 26th to make an expedition on foot 



