148 DAYS AND NIGHTS BY THE DESERT. 



as much as he can do to overtake it. Again, the 

 nature of the ground on which the chase takes place, 

 must ever make a most obvious difference ; thus the 

 koodoo, in its favourite mountain habitat, will set 

 at defiance the best mounted hunter, but the same 

 animal, if surprised upon the flat, where the soil is 

 firm and free from boulders, can, under ordinary 

 circumstances, without great difficulty be overtaken. 

 In the northern part of the province of Marico, in 

 the vicinity of a settlement called Brakfontein, ac- 

 companied by a son of Mr. Froude, the historian, in 

 anything but a favourable riding country, for the 

 ground was thickly strewn with boulders, and in 

 portions covered with dense thickets of thorns, we 

 each rode down a sassaybe, and the distance tra- 

 versed by both in this performance did not exceed 

 four miles. If the district had been more suitable, 

 I could have killed my beast in little more than half 

 that distance, for several times, when I attempted to 

 rush up alongside of the quarry, I was prevented 

 doing so from the thickness of the bush. I must 

 add, in explanation of the shortness of the run, that 

 when the game was killed, I scarcely ever saw a 

 fatter carcase. 



Any one would suppose, after such a fatiguing 

 and harassing day as just passed, that I would 

 have slept when I got to my waggon like the pro- 

 verbial top, but no such thing was permitted, for, 

 what with the roaring of the lion (that gentleman 



