376 NEW LAND. 



ourselves, and when at last they got wind of the animals, it was 

 plainly no more than they had long expected. 



Since we had last seen the animals they had lain down in a 

 little hollow. We noted the position of some of the sand-ridges, 

 but as we approached them they changed their appearance, and 

 were exceedingly misleading. I then drove over one of these 

 sand-hills, thinking the herd to be behind the nearest of them, 

 but I suddenly caught sight of the animals' backs down in a gully 

 a couple of hundred yards away. I pulled up, overturned the 

 load, and did not let go the dogs. I meant to advance a few steps 

 and pick off three or four of the animals, hoping that then, when 

 there were no dogs to worry them, the rest of the herd would 

 disperse. 



Schei, with his heavy load, had fallen behind ; the first man in 

 the convoy, being pioneer, has always to have a lighter burden. 

 I therefore reached the field of battle long before my comrade, 

 and my intention of letting Schei do the shooting, which he was 

 very keen about, did not come to pass, as I thought it too risky to 

 delay. 



I took my rifle and began to stalk the animals ; but I had not 

 gone more than ten or twelve steps in front of the dogs before 

 they began to howl and whine with impatience. The oxen sud- 

 denly jumped up, and there was nothing for it then but to let go 

 the connecting lanyard, and off ran the whole team. As soon as 

 the animals saw the dogs, they formed a square. 



I took my time going up to them, in order not to be out of 

 breath' when I was going to shoot. Before I reached them, two of 

 the oxen had already broken out of the square, and were fighting 

 the dogs on their own account. A little while afterwards I saw, 

 to my astonishment, that the square had half dissolved, and the 

 skirmishes with the dogs were becoming fiercer and fiercer. There 

 were thirteen animals altogether, some of which were young 

 animals, and four were very small calves, only a few weeks old. 

 Every one of the full-grown animals took part in the attacks, even 

 to the young animals, and several of them made simultaneous 

 sorties. I had never seen anything like this before. 



With such hot-tempered animals as these it was as well to have 



