ANTELOPES 271 



for it on the brow of the hill, we saw it gdlloping off in the dis- 

 tance, leaving a broad blood-spoor on the grass. This incited 

 us to follow, as from time to time the animal lay down ; but for 

 a long time I never could get within half a mile of it. During 

 the pursuit we suddenly came upon a splendid buffalo, the first 

 and only one I have ever come across. I used my Lee-Speed, 

 as it was rather far oft", and I presume I missed, for my subse- 

 quent shots only accelerated its flight. I had always heard, that 

 a buffalo invariably attacks its aggressor, but this is evidently not 

 the case. I confess I hesitated at first to risk an attack from the 

 huge creature, but I trusted to having my magazine-rifle, which 

 enables me to have eleven shots running without re-loading, 

 since by a simple movement the empty cartridge is automatically 

 extracted and replaced by a loaded one from the attached 

 magazine. I speculated that, as the attacking animal came closer, 

 my chances of hitting it would be increased. But wdth further 

 experience I am not so sure, that I should like to trust to a Lee- 

 Metford bullet having sufficient stopping power to arrest the 

 rush of an enemy, man or beast, though mortally wounded. 

 The buffalo might still have had enough life left to toss and gore 

 me, even though its minutes were numbered, and it should sink 

 down dead afterw-ards. 



When I succeeded in coming up with the exhausted harte- 

 beest, I gave it a bullet from my Lee-Speed rifle at close 

 quarters. It jumped over a grassy elevation, and when we 

 had climbed this, we saw a hartebeest slowly galloping oft" 

 at a distance. Thinking this was the wounded one, as it had 

 already shown such marvellous powers of endurance, we were 

 following for a while, when I felt convinced that it must be 

 another hartebeest, and that consequently the wounded one 

 must be lying dead somewhere. The only way to ascertain this, 

 was for us to retrace our steps to the last spot, where we had 

 seen the wounded one, and from there to track it. This we 

 did, and thus we came upon it, lying dead in the grass, and 

 completely hidden from us even within five feet of it. 



My third Jacksoni 1 got to the south of the Ravine. The 

 fourth Jacksoni I shot in Singo. Whilst the alarmed animals 

 were rushing across a swamp, I ran in pursuit, and I dropped 

 on my knees, when the herd paused on the other side of the 

 swamp to look round. I was obliged to give the chest-shot, 

 as the nearest animal was one which faced me. I found 



