HISTORY. 451 



an aspect truly African to the scene ; whilst Lions, Leopards, 

 Hyenas, Jackals, and other Ferae, restrain their numbers 

 within fitting limits. Captain Harris, in his Account of the 

 Interior, gives vivid portraitures of the mass of life which 

 these wild scenes sometimes present. " On the morning of 

 the 9th October," says he, " when the waggons had started 

 on their way to the Meristane River, our next stage, I turned 

 off the road in pursuit of a troop of Brindled Gnoos, and pre- 

 sently came upon another, which was joined by a third still 

 larger, and then by a vast herd of Zebras, and again by more 

 Gnoos, with Sassabys and Hartebeests, pouring down from 

 every quarter, until the landscape literally presented the ap- 

 pearance of a moving mass of game. Their incredible num- 

 bers so impeded their progress, that I had no difficulty in 

 closing with them, dismounting as opportunity offered, firing 

 both barrels of my rifle into the retreating phalanx, and 

 leaving the ground strewed with the slain." Again, in de- 

 scribing his further hunting in the country of the Meristane 

 River, " We soon perceived large herds of Quaggas and 

 Brindled Gnoos, which continued to join each other, until the 

 whole place seemed alive. The clatter of their hoofs was 

 perfectly astounding ; and I could compare it to nothing but 

 the din of a tremendous charge of cavalry, or the rushing of 

 a mighty tempest. I could not estimate the accumulated 

 numbers at less than 15,000, a great extent of country being 

 actually chequered black and white with their congregated 

 masses. As the panic caused by the report of our rifles ex- 

 tended, clouds of dust hovered over them, and the long necks 

 of troops of ostriches were also to be seen towering over the 

 heads of their less gigantic neighbours, and sailing past with 

 astonishing rapidity. Groups of purple Sassabys, and bril- 

 liant red and yellow Hartebeests, likewise lent their aid to 

 complete the picture." " The savages kept in our wake, 

 dexterously despatching the wounded Gnoos by a touch on 

 the spine with the point of an assagai, and instantly cover- 

 ing up the carcasses with bushes to secure them from the 



