ANT-FIGHTING. 110 



horse to a standstill, I had to give it up, so I returned to camp 

 and changed the saddle to the mare, and again went after the 

 calf; and in five minutes it was dead, the mare going up to it 

 at once. 



Meat being plentiful, we gave up hunting for a day or two, 

 and let the men go out and kill some old bulls, their tongues 



being as good as any others; so M and 1 remained in 



camp mending our clothes, cleaning our guns, &c., and making 

 experiments in cookery, though we were very seldom able to 

 eat what we had cooked. 



One evening we heard turkeys flying up to roost, and on 

 going to the spot after dark found the trees full of them, and 

 we brought back five fine ones. This is a very tame way of 

 getting them, however, as they are shot sitting, and you cannot 

 well miss, using a shot gun and no. 6 shot, which, by the way, 

 is much more deadly than a larger size, if you fire at the head 

 and neck. A better way was to run them into the bushes on 

 horseback when you found them out feeding, and by following 

 them at once, they would rise all round you and give you 

 some very pretty shots. 



One of our amusements in camp was to find a red-ants' nest, 

 and then one of the white ant, and to lay a train of sugar or 

 syrup from one to the other, and lie down about halfway 

 between the two and watch the result. Before long you would 

 see a mass of them coming from both sides, and when they 

 met the fun began. They would first form up into a solid 

 body on each side, and seem to hold a palaver, after which 

 they would separate and, rushing across the intervening space, 

 would seize an adversary ; they would throw him on their backs, 

 and carry him off to the ant-hill, where, of course, he was 



