^ I saw was simply a dozen quagga, all exactly 



alike, all standing alike, all looking at me, all full face 

 to me, their fore feet together, their ears cocked, and 

 their heads quite motionless all gazing steadily at 

 me, alive with interest and curiosity. There was 

 something quite ludicrous in it, and something perplex- 

 ing also : when I looked at the quagga the wildebeeste 

 seemed to get out of focus and were lost to me ; when 

 I looked at the wildebeeste the quagga ' blurred ' 

 and faded out of sight. The difference in distance, 

 perhaps as much as the very marked difference in the 

 distinctive colourings, threw me out; and the effect 

 of being watched also told. Of course I wanted to get 

 a wildebeeste, but I was conscious of the watching 

 quagga all the time, and, for the life of me, could not 

 help constantly looking at them to see if they were 

 going to start off and stampede the others. 



Whilst trying to pick out the best of the wildebeeste 

 a movement away on the left made me look that way : 

 the impala jumped off like one animal, scaring the 

 tsessebe into a scattering rout; the quagga switched 

 round and thundered off like a stampede of horses ; 

 and the wildebeeste simply vanished. One signal in 

 one troop had sent the whole lot off. Jock and I were 

 left alone, still crouching, looking from side to side, 

 staring at the slowly drifting dust, and listening to the 

 distant dying sound of galloping feet. 



It was a great disappointment, but the conviction 

 that we had found a really good spot made some amends, 

 and Snowball was left undisturbed to feed and rest for 

 another two hours. We made for the waggons along 

 321 x 



