Chap. XXVII.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 237 



^vore round my hunting cap, being dragged off by a 

 projecting bovigb, was instantly charged by three 

 rhinoceroses ; and looking over my shoulder, I could 

 see them long afterwards fagging themselves to 

 overtake me. In the course of five minutes, the 

 fugitives arrived at a small river, the treacherous 

 sands of which receiving their long legs, their flight 

 was greatly retarded ; and after floundering to the 

 opposite side, and scrariibling to the top of the bank, 

 I perceived that their race was run. Patting the 

 steaming neck of my good steed, I urged him again 

 to his utmost, and instantly found myself by the side 

 of the herd. The stately bull, being readily distin- 

 guishable from the rest by his dark chesnut robe, 

 and superior stature, I applied the muzzle of my 

 rifle behind his dappled shoulder, with the right 

 hand, and drew both triggers ; but he still continued 

 to shuffle along, and being afraid of losing him, 

 should I dismount, among the extensive mimosa 

 groves, with which the landscape was now obscured, 

 I sat in my saddle, loading and firing behind the 

 elbow, and then placing myself across his path^ 

 until, the tears trickling from his full brilliant eye, 

 his lofty frame began to totter, and at the seven- 

 teenth discharge from the deadly grooved bore, 

 bowing his graceful head from the skies, his 

 proud form was prostrate in the dust. Never 

 shall I forget the tingling excitement of that 

 moment ! Alone, in the wild wood, I hurraed with 

 bursting exultation, and unsaddling my steed, 

 sank exhausted beside the noble prize I had won. 



