44 LARGE GAME. chap. i. 



river, though it was rather uncertain ; as, if I had wounded 

 it when I fired into the bush, and if I had not missed it, 

 as the whistling of the bullet made me think I had, with 

 my second barrel, then the full number of shots would be 

 accounted for, even to their position ; but as we could find 

 no trace of blood on the spoor of the herd, and as it was 

 certain that the wounded bull had come so far with them 

 — for we found plenty of evidences of its presence in the 

 thicket — we inclined to believe that, so far, we had 

 accounted for all those first fired at, and that none had 

 gone away wounded. 



Skirting the bush, we now went round it, and took 

 up the spoor of the cow, and in a few minutes I sighted 

 her lying down about ten yards off, and in a good position 

 for a shot. Motioning to the hunter to come up, I pointed 

 to her, and whispering " Fire in half a minute," cautiously 

 stole a little on one side to where I could get a good 

 chance at her if she tried to rise after his shot. Just as I 

 reached the spot he fired, and whether the bullet struck 

 a twig or what, it missed the buffalo clean, and went away 

 singing in the distance. Up struggled the cow, evidently 

 very stiff, affording me a lovely shot, which I took advan- 

 tage of, and kept her where she was, and he, running in 

 with his second barrel, finished her on the spot. Hanging 

 my fourth tail on my belt, we proceeded to search for the 

 fifth and last, though the sun was now rapidly declining 

 and we should have to hurry if we did not wish to have 

 our long walk to camp in the dark, never a very pleasant 

 thing in such a country, and especially disagreeable now 

 on account of the number and daring of the lions. The 

 spoor of this one, which was of the largest size, was easy 



