SPLENDID FIGHT. 187 



twenty yards of each other, neither moving a muscle. 

 Simultaneously they charged again, and the shock 

 must have been tremendous, as their foreheads, clad 

 with horny armour, crashed together, for the young 

 bull fell back on his haunches, recoiling from the blow, 

 while the larger staggered back a yard or two. 



I was determined to see this splendid fight out at 

 any price. Several of the herd seemed to take in- 

 tense interest in it, and stood at a respectful distance, 

 looking at these gladiators of the forest, but the 

 majority of them heeded not the squabble. Time 

 after time they charged each other with determined 

 ferocity, and each charge brought the smaller to the 

 ground. I never saw anything like his pluck. In 

 their last collision, which was not so violent as those 

 that preceded it, they locked their horns ; a position 

 in which the small bull had no chance. He was 

 violently driven back, still opposing his adversary, 

 into the midst of the herd, where it seemed to me 

 that some of the old hands tried to put a stop to such 

 a display of bad feeling among their number. 



'' Shoot that ' nyati grandy ' " (big buffalo), said 

 Moloka, pointing to a very fair bull which I had 

 not seen before, as it walked out from the herd 

 and stood broadside on about seventy yards from 

 me. He was answered by a roar from the gum- 

 tickler, and the startled herd came on full tilt, some 

 straight at us, and others on either side, seeking their 

 forest haunts, and but little knowing in what direction 

 the shot was fired or that they were running into the 

 jaws of danger. Moloka hugged the tree, but showed 

 ' no symptoms of decamping. A cow which was racing 



