246 Men, Mines, and Animals in South Africa. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



HUXTIXG THE ANTELOPE OX THE HIGH VELDT. 



We start for Hartle}^ Hill — The Mashonas as servants — Mar- 

 riage in Maslionaland — All alone on the Veldt — Hints to 

 hnnters when lost on the Veldt — A K'lffir kraal — Barter 

 with the natives — Dangerously bad shooting — The troubles 

 of trekking — The country l)et\veen Fort Salisbury and 

 Hartley Hill — Wild flowers and fruit — Unsuccessful 

 chase after ostriches — -A fine herd of eland — The bull of 

 the herd falls to my gun. 



The record of iii)' travels continues to l)e niainl}' 

 occupied witli details of the chase. Saturday, 

 Auo'ust 21)th, and the followinij: Sundav and 

 Mondav were busy days Avitli all of us. j\Iessrs. 

 Perkins and Rolker were at work from dawn to 

 dusk panning, assaying, and Aveighing the gold 

 extracted from the numerous samples of rpiartz 

 Avhich they had l^rought with them from the ^lazoe 

 district gold-fields ; while Captain A\ illiams and I 

 had our time taken up with preparations for our 

 journey to Hartley Hill, such as procuring the 

 indis]:»ensable mealies and other kinds of provi- 

 sions, hiring a fresh span of oxen for the Scotch 

 cart. Two roads lead from Fort Salisbury to 

 Hartley Hill ; the lower road, said to be about 

 twenty or twenty-fi\'e miles the sliorter of the two, 

 follows the main route to the south as far as the 

 Hunyani River, after crossing which it branches off 



