20 LARGE GAME. CHAR i. 



and I, in common with those who were watching and who 

 now began to shout to me, fully expected a charge ; however, 

 I ran on, and was greatly relieved, as well as astonished, 

 to see her lie down, evidently unable to go further. On 

 getting close, I noticed through the long grass that her 

 ears were still moving to and fro, and aware of the danger 

 of going too near a buffalo when not quite dead, I made 

 it a certainty by a bullet in the shoulder before I did so. 

 I found on examination that the first shot, which we had 

 both imagined to have been a miss, had entered at the 

 flank and driven forward, a wound more often immediately 

 fatal than almost any other; while mine had killed a 

 rhinoceros-bird, which, even in death, had remained 

 perched on her shoulder. 



In the meantime the firing, both in the reeds and on 

 the banks, had become continuous, and on re-entering the 

 former we came upon several hunters loudly disputing 

 for the possession of a cow which lay at their feet, perfectly 

 riddled with bullets. Passing them, we proceeded down 

 the lanes the game had formed, and in a very few minutes 

 Umdumela, who was leading, raised his gun. I stepped 

 on one side while he fired, and as soon as we could hear 

 which way the animal was going, I passed him gathering 

 as I did so that he had fired at the haunches at three 

 yards distance and kept on down the lanes, which were 

 here very numerous. Suddenly, on glancing round to the 

 right, I saw a cow not five yards off, standing by one of 

 the island-like clumps of reeds which separated the inter- 

 secting paths, quietly watching me. It was an instance 

 of the danger undergone in such cover, as, had it charged 

 the moment it saw me, I must inevitably have been caught. 



