368 THRILLING ADVENTURES. 



of large partridge, and two kinds of quail being likewise 

 numerous. 



I presently wounded a noble old waterbuck as he dashed 

 past me in marshy ground. In following him up I met an 

 old buck pallah, which I killed on the spot with a shot in the 

 middle of the breast. Following on after the wounded water- 

 buck, along the high bank of the river, which was, however, 

 concealed from my view by the dense cover, I suddenly heard 

 a loud splash, and coming suddenly clear of the cover, I 

 beheld the lovely waterbuck standing broadside on an island 

 in the middle of the river. Before I could dismount to fire, 

 he dashed into the water and swam to the opposite bank. I 

 grasped my trusty little Moore and waited till he won the 

 terra firma, when with one well-directed shot I dropped him 

 on the spot. A very strange thing then occurred ; the buck 

 in his death-pangs slid down into the river, and continuing 

 his struggles he swam half-way across the river back to the 

 island, where he lay upon a sand-bank. I then divested my- 

 self of my leathers, spurs, and veldtschoens, and was wading 

 in to fetch him, when the river carrried him off, and, fearing 

 the horrible crocodiles, I did not attempt to follow. It was 

 now late, and I rode for my wagon track, which I failed to 

 find until I had returned to where we had breakfasted. I had 

 been following the turns of the river, and the wagons had 

 taken a short cut across the country. I reached them in the 

 dark by great good luck. 



On the 10th, I rode ahead of my wagons at day-dawn : 

 thick mist was rolling along the Limpopo. Presently I saw 

 two crocodiles in the stream below me. A little after I had 

 the pleasure to find, for the first time, the tracks of sea-cows 

 or hippopotami. I had never before seen it, but I knew it 

 must be theirs ; it was very similar to the track of borele, or 

 black rhinoceros, but larger, and had four toes instead of 

 three. Before returning to my wagons I tried to ride down 

 a waterbuck which I turned off from the river, but in this I 



