AN IRREPRESSIBLE DOG. 145 



buck was there. The next hill we treated in exactly 

 the same manner, but when we looked over a lagoon of 

 water was discovered beneath us, with hundreds of wild 

 beasts, bless-buck, and spring-buck, standing knee-deep, 

 enjoying its refreshing influences ; many of them were 

 within two hundred and forty yards, but as I felt con- 

 vinced that Morris or some of the Boers would bring 

 home game, I desisted firing, and enjoyed looking at 

 their playful antics and innocent gambols. But con- 

 found that black dog ! she saw the game and dashed at 

 it. In a moment all was confusion, for in an instant 

 after they deployed into one unbroken line and made 

 for a point to my right front, where the track bent. 

 Making the best spurt I could, I rushed forward under 

 shelter to cut them off, or at least see them cross the 

 road. I was in time, and a prettier sight I never saw, 

 for with one accord in succession they cleared it at a 

 bound ; and strange to say, although within one 

 hundred and fifty yards of them, I never looked along 

 my barrel, or thought of doing so. I shall remember 

 that sight as long as I live, and shall not the less enjoy 

 it when I think that I witnessed it without murderous 

 intentions. If I and my people had required food I 

 should not have hesitated, but three better hunters than 

 myself were out to kill game, and I knew they would 

 not come home empty-handed. 



On my way back to the wagons, about seven o'clock, 

 I saw a solitary spring- buck in a hollow. I made a stalk 

 up-wind to observe its habits, when the brute of a dog, 

 watching my movements, got on an ant-heap, and dis- 

 covered the game I wished to approach. With a bound 

 she rushed down the face of the slope, and both spring- 

 buck and hound disappeared over the neighbouring rise. 

 K 



