104 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
accustomed to the sight of an animal at a respectable distance, 
they can soon be driven up alongside of it, and get as eager in 
pursuit of elephant and large game as their riders. 
By neglecting this rule, I very nearly came to grief on an 
afterwards capital pony. It was his dééut, and a wounded 
elephant charging with a scream, so terrified him that he was 
paralysed with fear, and stood stock-still after turning round ; 
spurs had no effect, and how we escaped I cannot now 
tell. The bull came within a few feet of his tail and then 
wheeled. I can only suppose he got the scent of the human 
being, for he was quite near enough to have swept me from 
the saddle with his trunk. By a little careful treatment this 
pony became a very valuable one, and I once in after days 
shot 120/. worth of ivory from his back in half an hour. Have 
nothing to do with a vicious or uncertain tempered horse. 
If you find you have been taken in with such a one, shoot 
him ; the first loss may not be so bad as the last. Never 
ride a stumbler up to anything that bites or butts. I had one, 
and he twice fell with me before a charging elephant. Luckily 
I did not come off, and pulled him up just in time to escape. 
Horses used to be cheap enough, but I dare say the price has 
risen. I mounted myself well from 72 10s. to 15/. apiece. 
Your ponies—for they are hardly more—ought to be quick get- 
ting their legs, and a turn of speed is desirable ; for though in the 
open it is easy sailing away from an elephant, in bush or broken 
ground for 200 yards he will sometimes press a slow horse. 
I was once, in particular, hard put to it by a smart though 
rather small bull. I had fired both barrels, and on he came. 
I might have had twenty yards’ start, but for the first roo he _ 
gained on me, and I had to ride as if in a close finish. A 
good Hantam horse is an exceptionally tough beast. Whilst 
at ‘Oologs Poort,’ a farm then in the occupation of a Mr. 
Nelson, I was buying mounts, when a Hottentot riding a neat 
round-ribbed bay came in with a return-letter from the town 
of Cradock, as far as I remember, seventy miles distant. The 
horse’s appearance pleased me much, and though I found the 
Te tle ii tee 
