36 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



of bulls, when the herd is frightened, may relieve their feel- 

 ings by a moment's furious battle, occasionally dropping to 

 their knees before closing. At this time, the end of April, 

 there were little calves with the herds of cows; but in many 

 places in equatorial Africa the various species of antelopes 

 seem to have no settled rutting time or breeding time; at 

 least we saw calves of all ages. 



Our hunt after wildebeest this afternoon was successful; 

 but though by velt law each animal was mine, because I 

 hit it first, yet in reality the credit was communistic, so to 

 speak, and my share was properly less than that of others. 

 I first tried to get up to a solitary old bull, and after a good 

 deal of manoeuvring, and by taking advantage of a second 

 rain squall, I got a standing shot at him at four hundred 

 yards, and hit him, but too far back. Although keeping 

 a good distance away, he tacked and veered so, as he ran, 

 that by much running myself I got various other shots at 

 him, at very long range, but missed them all, and he finally 

 galloped over a distant ridge, his long tail switching, seem- 

 ingly not much the worse. We followed on horseback; 

 for I hate to let any wounded thing escape to suffer. But 

 meanwhile he had run into view of Kermit; and Kermit 

 who is of an age and build which better fit him for suc- 

 cessful breakneck galloping over unknown country dotted 

 with holes and bits of rotten ground took up the chase 

 with enthusiasm. Yet it was sunset, after a run of six or 

 eight miles, when he finally ran into and killed the tough old 

 bull, which had turned to bay, snorting and tossing its horns. 



Meanwhile I managed to get within three hundred 

 and fifty yards of a herd, and picked out a large cow which 

 was unaccompanied by a calf. Again my bullet went too 

 far back; and I could not hit the animal at that distance 

 as it ran. But after going half a mile it lay down, and 

 would have been secured without difficulty if a wretched 

 dog had not run forward and put it up; my horse was a 

 long way back, but Pease, who had been looking on at a 

 distance, was mounted, and sped after it. By the time I 



