A WONDERFUL PONY. 113 



leave the mare, who, however, remained at my knee, though I 

 was doing my best ; a minute later she passed me easily, going 

 over the rough ground like a cat, and the stranger got the first 

 shot, and in the end killed the bull, I being simply nowhere, as 

 my mare tried to run away on hearing the firing, and being 

 very bad when the ground was rough. 



I need not say how disgusted I was, though the mare's 

 owner behaved very well and refrained from chaffing me. We 

 took the bull's tongue, and Brown having joined us, with his 

 horse entirely pumped, we started once more, but found no 

 buffaloes till late in the afternoon, when we came on a small 

 band of cows and calves, which scattered on our chasing them ; 

 and I managed to get one after firing nearly twenty shots, as 

 my mare jumped many feet every time I raised my gun, 

 so that it was impossible to take any sort of aim. 



On the way to camp I exchanged the race-mare for the 

 pony, giving fifty dollars to boot, though she had cost me two 

 hundred dollars (40). This was by far the best animal that 

 I ever sat on in America, and though so small she seemed to 

 make nothing of my fifteen stone, going over awful ground 

 without a stumble, even at full speed, and standing fire like an 

 old shooting pony. Although I gave a long price for her 

 I did not regret it, as she was the means of saving my life 

 more than once, as will be seen further on. I owned her for 

 three years, and then sold her to a companion on my leaving 

 for home. 



The mare's owner left us the next day, and we moved south 

 to the Solomon River, the large herd of buffalo being on the 

 other side of it, so that it took us nearly half a day to reach 

 them from where we had been camped. We established* our- 



