iS6 Men, Mines, and Animals in South Africa. 



notliino-. For a moiiient you leave it in the 

 wao-gon, and a magnificent chance of sport pre- 

 sents itself. Fern Spruit became hateful to me. 

 AYe halted here a night and day in order to give 

 " Bless " proper treatment. On the following 

 morning " Ruby," a good horse, was taken ill, and 

 died in less than three hours. Surgeon Rayner 

 made a post-mortem examination of the body. 

 The animal appeared to have been seized with 

 pleurisv, producing a profuse discharge into the 

 l)ronchial tubes of white foam or froth, a clear 

 yellow serum, which had tried to escape througli 

 tlie windpipe and nostrils, and, by the effort, had 

 produced suffocation. The poor animal had died 

 in two or three minutes with all the struggles 

 and spasms consequent on suffocation. A much 

 liarder trial was in store. Aly shooting-pony 

 " Charlie," to me an invaluable animal, perfectly- 

 trained, was taken ill about midday, and was 

 dead in the afternoon. Major Giles and his 

 friends exhausted every effort to save this pony. 

 Every remedy was tried. For a short time 

 sulphur burnt under the nostrils ajD^^eared to pro- 

 duce a o'ood effect. Durino- half-an-hour the dis- 

 charge poured profusely through the nostrils, and 

 if this could have continued, the pony might 

 have survived. So strong was he that three men 

 could scarcely hold him in his efforts to escape 

 from the sulphur fumes. Suddenly the discharge 

 ceased to flow ; in a second he fell to the ground 

 and expired almost immediately with desperate 

 struggles, biting the ground with his teeth. I 



