Sable Antelopes Shot. 69 



I then took the spoor and soon found the body of the 

 cow, and I was looking round to see if the bull was 

 visible, when I heard two coughing grunts and then saw a 

 sable running. Thinking it was the bull, I threw up my 

 rifle and fired, and the sable fell as the bullet took it just 

 under the tail. On walking up to it I found that I 

 had shot another cow. The grunts I had heard were 

 certainly made by the bull, as I never heard a cow sable 

 make these hoarse sounds, and I think the cow had joined 

 him, and that he was probably lying down, and had gone 

 off in a different direction, which I did not notice, as my 

 attention was taken up with the bolting cow. 



As it was pretty late, I covered up the two sable and 

 decided to return early next morning and try to find 

 the bull. 



Next morning I came back with all my men to cut up 

 the meat and to resume the search for the wounded sable. 

 The cows were both very fat and in the highest condition, 

 and the natives relished this, as they got most of the meat. 



I spent many hours trying to trace the wounded animal, 

 and I could not find him, but I shot a reedbuck ram after 1 

 had left the sable spoor. 



Finding this locality no good for elephants, as they had 

 evidently been scared away by the smell of the dead one, I 

 changed camp to Mitala's village, about eight miles from 

 Maponda's, where I found the old camp of a white man 

 who had been shooting there a month or two before. 



Telling my cook to superintend the pitching of my tent 

 and to make some lunch, I took three men and went for a 

 stroll, and found a lot of old elephant and buffalo spoor. I 

 came on a large herd of roan antelopes, and could have 

 shot one had I cared to do so, for they would hardly move 

 away ; at least, they would let me approach to within 

 150 yards, and then run for two or three hundred yards, and 

 stop and look back. Besides the spoor I have mentioned, 

 the whole ground was covered with the tracks of elands 

 and roan, and this was evidently a big-game haunt of the 

 best description. 



