68 MR. CHAPMAN'S EXPERIENCES. 



moderate computation, than 100 head of game, drank at 

 the spring every five minutes. This in ten hours would 

 make 12,000, which however enormous it may appear is, I 

 feel confident, far within the mark. This pool, about 400 

 yards in circumference, was all night kept in commotion: 

 the splashing of water, the din of clattering hoofs, and the 

 lowing and moaning of gnus and their calves, being mingled 

 in discordant notes. The braying of quaggas was terrible, 

 and the pond, except at one or two short periods when we 

 fired, was never clear." * 



The following is another hunting scene, narrated by 

 the same authority, of an immense herd of buffalo, 

 witnessed October gth, 1854, at Mokee Fountain: 



" While in pursuit of a troop of about 400 pallahs, we found 

 the spoor of an immense herd of buffaloes. Of these we 

 fell in with a troop of eight, out of which M. and I bagged 

 one each. While cutting up the buffalo, a rumbling noise 

 like that of an earthquake broke over our ears, and we 

 perceived a dense mass of black living game, like a troubled 

 sea, extending over a large tract of plain approaching us. 

 Moving out of the way, no less than from 800 to 1000 

 buffalo passed us at full speed, and fearful of being trodden 

 to death in case of a change in their course, we waited till 

 the whole herd had passed, and giving chase at their heels, 

 we killed four and wounded several others. " f 



Mr. Chapman also relates the following respecting 

 some great herds of game seen by him on the Banks 

 of the Botletli river, South Africa : 



" Troops of leche varying from 50 to 100, their warm 

 colours heightened by the sinking sun, contrasted with the 



* Travels in the Interior of Sottth Africa comprising Fifteen Years* 

 Hunting and Trading (1849 1864, by James Chapman, F.R.G.S.,. 

 1868, Vol. i. f p. 240. 



f Ibid., Vol. i., p. 265. 



