A DREADFUL DEATH. 273 



so satisfactorily as they usually do. However, I got 

 a couple of shots at twenty yards, or less, both of 

 which proved effective. It could scarcely have been 

 otherwise, when I state that the poor beasts were 

 sitting up like pigmy human beings, with their entire 

 figures clearly defined, gazing with large, lustrous 

 eyes in amazement at the sanctity of their domain 

 being invaded by such a brilliant and unknown 

 display. 



In this enclosure there must have been upwards 

 of thirty or forty of these animals, for the rush they 

 made on passing round my flank resembled the tread 

 of a small drove of sheep. I might have fired into 

 the "brown" of them, it is true, and been successful 

 in adding further to my bag, but I hesitated from 

 doing so, in the belief that many more would have 

 gone away wounded than would have been secured. 

 I don't know why, but it has always appeared to 

 me a fearful thing for a wounded animal to die shut 

 up in the cold, damp interior of the earth. There 

 may be some mawkishness in this, for the burrow of 

 a rabbit or a jumping hare may present all the attrac- 

 tiveness to these animals that a well-furnished 

 bedroom does to man, and the majority of the 



