198 DAYS AND NIGHTS BY THE DESERT. 



sure, I made a detour to the south-west, rode up a 

 donga for a couple of hundred yards, dismounted, 

 hobbled my mare, and took a view over the edge of 

 the crevice. To my satisfaction, there were the 

 antelopes, but at least two hundred yards further to 

 my left ; so, drawing my head down out of sight, with 

 silent footsteps I followed the course of the sun 

 crack, .the. bottom of which was almost as smooth 

 as a military covered way. 



-. Directly in front of where I a second time raised 

 my head was an ant-hill in fact, the whole country 

 was covered with these monotonous and uninterest- 

 ing excrescences and not a hundred yards off, in all 

 the consciousness of feeling secure from interruption, 

 fed five of .these beautiful and graceful represen- 

 tatives of the South African fauna. 

 '. ; I had loaded with hollow bullets, and both did 

 their duty well, for the victims fell and yielded up 

 their lives at once, without giving the spasmodic 

 struggle that almost invariably accompanies violent 

 death. 



The remaining companions of the slain did not 

 appear the least alarmed at the report of my rifle, or 

 conscious of the fate of their comrades, but continued 

 nibbling up portions of the scant herbage in the 

 delicate, fastidious manner peculiar to their species. 

 If I had desired to do so, I might have shot every 

 member of the party, but desisted, and trust that all 

 sportsmen will follow the example I set them, 





