340 LARGE GAME. chap. vn. 



gave me a lesson as to what it could do when baited by 

 dogs. Solitary males of this, as of other species, are often 

 seen wandering about, and one day an old fellow allowed 

 me, partially concealed by a clump of bush, to get within 

 eighty yards of him. As he whisked up his tail and 

 wheeled round preparatory to taking to flight, I fired at 

 him, and the two dogs that accompanied me immediately 

 rushed off in pursuit, while I ran along a ridge parallel to 

 their course, in full view of the whole chase. The bullet 

 did not seem to have made the slightest difference to the 

 antelope — if such, indeed, a gnu can be called, — and the 

 dogs had to run hard and strong, although they were by 

 no means slow, before they reached him. Each then 

 tackled him after its own fashion, the older and more 

 wary biting his heels, which, to judge by its usual effects, 

 is about the most irritating thing that a dog can do ; while 

 its younger and less experienced companion ran on and 

 sprang at his throat. The horns of a gnu are bovine, and, 

 on a miniature scale, much resemble those of a cow buffalo, 

 though the curve does not take them so far back ; and I 

 was now to learn for the first time what deadly use he 

 can make of them when roused. With a wheel that, 

 active as all these animals' movements are, seemed like 

 a flash of lightning, he caught the younger dog on his 

 horns, and sent it spinning and howling a dozen yards 

 away, at the same time making a vicious rush at the other. 

 Old Shot was, however, far too clever an animal to be 

 caught in this way — it was nothing unusual for him to be 

 chased about by a wounded buffalo for half an hour, and 

 he evidently did not mind it in the least, — so he now 

 took to his heels, with his tail well tucked in between 



