20 LARGE GAME. chap. i. 



and I, in common with those who were watching and who 

 now began to shout to me, fully expected a charge ; however, 

 I ran on, and was greatly relieved, as well as astonished, 

 to see her He down, evidently unable to go further. On 

 getting close, I noticed through the long grass that her 

 ears were still moving to and fro, and aware of the danger 

 of going too near a buffalo when not quite dead, I made 

 it a certainty by a bullet in the shoulder before I did so. 

 I found on examination that the first shot, which we had 

 both imagined to have been a miss, had entered at the 

 flank and driven forward, a wound more often immediately 

 fatal than almost any other; while mine had killed a 

 rhinoceros-bird, which, even in death, had remained 

 perched on her shoulder. 



In the meantime the firing, both in the reeds and on 

 the banks, had become continuous, and on re-entering the 

 former we came upon several hunters loudly disputing 

 for the possession of a cow which lay at their feet, perfectly 

 riddled with bullets. Passing them, we proceeded down 

 the lanes the game had formed, and in a very few minutes 

 Umdumela, who was leading, raised his gun. I stepped 

 on one side while he fired, and as soon as we could hear 

 which way the animal was going, I passed him — gathering 

 as I did so that he had fired at the haunches at three 

 yards distance — and kept on down the lanes, which were 

 here very numerous. Suddenly, on glancing round to the 

 right, I saw a cow not five yards off, standing by one of 

 the island-like clumps of reeds which separated the inter- 

 secting paths, quietly watching me. It was an instance 

 of the danger undergone in such cover, as, had it charged 

 the moment it saw me, I must inevitably have been caught. 



