GEMSBUCK FOUND DEAD 291 



I had met a short time before, and who, I knew, 

 was about to proceed on a shooting trip to 

 Mashunaland. He told me that he had left his 

 waggons some twenty miles away at Batlanarma 

 vley, and ridden on, as he knew I was not far 

 ahead, and he wanted to have a couple of days' 

 hunting with me. 



I soon got my visitor something to eat, and 

 whilst a sleeping place was being prepared for him, 

 told him how I had lost a fine gemsbuck through 

 firing at it with the setting sun full in my eyes. 

 Count von Schweinitz wanted particularly to see 

 some gemsbucks and hartebeests, as he knew that 

 these animals were not to be got in Mashunaland. 

 I informed him that I thought we would be sure to 

 find hartebeests, but could not answer for gemsbucks, 

 though I told him that if we could find the one I 

 had wounded and lost, I hoped he would take its 

 head. 



At daylight the next morning we rode out with 

 four of my Kafirs, and took my horse's track to 

 where I had galloped after the wildebeest. Then I 

 took a sweep round and cut the tracks of the gems- 

 buck, intermingled with those of my pursuing horse, 

 and following them up, came on the beautiful 

 antelope, lying dead just on the edge of the thorn 

 trees where 1 had last seen it. It was just as I 

 had surmised. My last bullet had gone a little 

 high, and striking the gemsbuck in the back of the 

 neck, had shattered the vertebrae and killed it 

 instantly. It had, of course, fallen all of a heap in 

 its tracks, and, impossible as it may seem, I had 

 galloped past, and within three yards of the dead 

 antelope, without seeing it. This, of course, could 

 not have happened had not my sight been blurred 

 for the moment by the glare of the sun. My horse 

 probably saw the gemsbuck fall, and so did not shy 

 as it passed it. 



