An Antelope leads me a Dance. 223 



apiece. I saw my antelope separate himself from 

 the herd and make off, and galloped after him. 

 He led me a fine dance, and never gave me but 

 one opportunity of getting near him, Avhich I was 

 too slow to take ad\'antage of. xVfter a two miles' 

 gallop I pulled up, wondering what had Ijecome of 

 my companions, and where I ^vas. In about half 

 an hour I heard a shot, and going in that direction 

 found Lee anxiously looking for me. In a chase 

 of this kind it is ^'ery easy for the inexperienced to 

 lose himself on the veldt. All landmarks get lost ; 

 the direction of the wind, the position of the sun, 

 give little assistance when one has been galloping 

 hard for some distance. I found that all our 

 galloping and shooting had only resulted in the 

 death of one hartebeest. It is "w^onderful and vex- 

 atious in the chase to see how close rifle bullets can 

 go without hitting the animal fired at, and also 

 how often the animal may be hit without fatal 

 effect. After this we rode on for two hours Avith- 

 out seeing any game, and were getting near oiu' 

 camp about midday Avhen we observed standing in 

 a grove a fine herd of fifteen or twenty roan 

 antelope. These magnificent creatures cantered 

 ofl"', but soon stopped to look round, giving me a 

 capital shot, as I happened to be in front of the 

 others. I fired hot\i barrels, at a distance of some 

 eighty yards, and knocked down two. One im- 

 mediately rose again and made ofi'. The uncertain 

 expanding bullet had smashed up on the surface, 

 without penetrating. Lee got a shot at this felloAV 

 and knocked him over, but he again got up and fol- 



