NOTES FROM MY DIARY. 255 



On our arrival in the Settlement a week later we found that Dr. Zedelins had taken 

 charge of the patient and had extracted 17 pellets which were carefully preserved in a small 

 bottle. But every now and again a fresh pellet would work its way to the surface, and was 

 promptly added to the stock in the bottle. The advent of a shot gave Cromie amusement 

 for many a month. Talking over the incident some little time before he died, but more than 

 twenty years after its occurrence, my life long friend assured me that he was satisfied that 

 there was yet plenty more lead in him. Seriously it was as near a fatal accident as anything 

 could be, and poor Cromie's life may be said to have been spared only from the fact that the 

 charge was deflected by a trouser pocketful of copper cash that he by luck happened to have 

 on him. Five cent pieces were not made in those days. They would not have stood in such 



good stead as the baser metal. The incident carries its own moral. Look before you fire. 



* * * * 



It is but natural that dogs should have their share in up-country incidents. In their 

 way they meet with many adventures and mishaps. In the eighties I was in the Maychee 

 country with a party consisting of Messrs. S. Daly, A. Myburgh and G. A. Lindsay. Lindsay 

 had but quite recently been the recipient of a busy little imported cocker spaniel, and 

 always had wonderful yarns as to extraordinary performances on the dog's part. It happened 

 at this time that for some days the creeks and ponds had been frozen over, but not with any 

 great thickness of ice. We were out together when Lindsay dropped a cock pheasant 

 which fell with such force that it broke, and was carried on by its impetus several feet 

 under, the ice. There it could be distinctly seen hard fixed. The spaniel springing from 

 the high creek bank performed a similar operation. There they were, pheasant and dog, 

 drowned before our very eyes, and we unable to get at them, though we worked lustily with 



the longest bamboos we could lay hands on. 



* « * * 



Oil another occasion I was at the Four Waters with Messrs. E. Rice and W. Lang 

 I had just received a very nice present from Mr. T. A. Lane, one of the founders of the 

 well known local firm of Lane, Crawford & Co. It was a clumber bred spaniel of a yellow 

 self colour, and I believe was bred by the donor, and came with rather a good reputation. 

 It was a hot October morning and I took the new arrival out. He had not been pottering 

 about for more than half an hour when he had a fit. I secured him till it had passed over 

 and he felt well enough to put in a little more work, when he had another fit. Knowing 

 that dogs often experience these fits of an epileptic nature after a lengthened sea voyage 

 (this animal came in a sailing vessel round the Cape) I determined to take him straight back 

 to the boat and work one of the other dogs. Just as my companions hailed me to come 

 aboard and share a Sunday pint, my new dog rushed into the creek, and do all I could with 

 diving right into the spot where he entered the water, assisted in my search by half a dozen 

 coolies with bamboos, I never saw him again. It is mysterious, but nevertheless a fact 



which was often attested by my companions. 



« » # « 



Mr. Neil Sinclair had long been expecting a brace of Gordon setters from a 

 shooting friend of his in Canada. They duly arrived, but were not Gordons. The dog 

 was a blue ticked Belton, good looking and active. The bitch was a ragged black, 

 white and tan collie crossed animal always sick and sorry. Sinclair had taken them 

 up-country a few times and expressed himself as perfectly pleased with them. But it was not 



