UNEARTHING A RATEL. 155 



trail of something, commenced to give tongue ; every 

 dog in consequence rushed to her assistance, and com- 

 menced beating the heavy grass with such care and 

 assiduity, that it was perfectly certain to all that some 

 wild animal was in the vicinity. In consequence the 

 wagons were halted, and drivers and Kaffirs alike went 

 to discover what could be the unknown beast. After a 

 time a hole was found, larger than an ordinary badger- 

 earth, and the zeal of the dogs over it, and their desire 

 to get into it, were truly absurd. However, big brutes 

 like Bonte and Bob had no chance, but the little 

 pointer had, so she bit the earth, scraped with her feet, 

 and snapped at every dog that came near enough to 

 impede her movements. William went for the pick, 

 and having discovered the direction in which the hole 

 led, dug down upon it. He had excavated about two 

 feet when out he jumped, the pointer took his place, 

 scratched for a moment, then made a grab, and holding 

 on like grim death, partially dragged from the shelter a 

 large black body. Next Bonte and then Bob got a 

 grip of the unknown beast, and between them all it 

 was dragged up on the velt. It was a regular repetition 

 of " pull devil, pull baker ; " the plucky little pointer if 

 anything displaying the most venom. The smell that 

 arose around the scene of combat was most fearful, 

 almost as bad as an American skunk's. Between blows 

 from the whip-handles, and worrying from the dogs, 

 the unfortunate was ultimately killed. It turned out 

 to be a very large ratel, certainly quite, if not over, the 

 size of a full-grown otter. The dogs of course got 

 saturated with this dreadful liquid used as a weapon of 

 defence, and they smelt so abominably as for days to 

 perfume the wagons. 



