THE GUASO NYERO 329 



two of them accompanying herds of zebra, after the man- 

 ner of kongoni. Both species were found indifferently on 

 the bare, short-grass flats and among the thin, stunted 

 thorn-trees which covered much of the plains. After a 

 careful stalk, the latter part on all-fours, I got to within 

 about three hundred yards of a mixed herd, and put a 

 bullet into one oryx as it faced me, and hit another as it 

 ran. The first, from its position, I thought I would surely 

 kill if I hit it at all, and both of the wounded beasts were 

 well behind the herd when it halted a mile away on the other 

 side of the plain. But as we approached they all went off 

 together, and I can only hope the two I hit recovered; at 

 any rate, after we had followed them for miles, the tough 

 beasts were still running as strongly as ever. 



All the morning I manoeuvred and tramped hard, in 

 vain. At noon, I tried a stalk on a little band of six, who 

 were standing still, idly switching their tails, out in a big 

 flat. They saw me, and at four hundred yards I missed the 

 shot. By this time I felt rather desperate, and decided for 

 once to abandon legitimate proceedings and act on the 

 Ciceronian theory, that he who throws the javelin all day 

 must hit the mark some time. Accordingly I emptied the 

 magazines of both my rifles at the oryx, as they ran across 

 my front, and broke the neck of a fine cow, at four hundred 

 and fifty yards. Six or seven hundred yards off the sur- 

 vivors stopped, and the biggest bull, evidently much put 

 out, uttered loud bawling grunts and drove the others 

 round with his horns. Meanwhile I was admiring the 

 handsome dun gray coat of my prize, its long tail and long, 

 sharp, slender horns, and the bold black and white mark- 

 ings on its face. Hardly had we skinned the carcass before 

 the vultures lit on it; with them were two marabou storks, 

 one of which I shot with a hard bullet from the Springfield. 



The oryx, like the roan and sable, and in striking con- 

 trast to the eland, is a bold and hard fighter, and when 

 cornered will charge a man or endeavor to stab a lion. If 

 wounded it must be approached with a certain amount of 



