184 IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 



dyke leads. Well, I'll try. So I load with big 

 shot, and call the dogs in close. No difficulty in 

 getting within two hundred yards, and then? 

 Happy thought, the sheep ! Bare as it is to see 

 sheep unshepherded here, these are; so I get behind 

 them, and with great difficulty start them towards 

 the water. Nearer and nearer we go, the sheep 

 continually trying to break back, and the dogs 

 getting very disobedient under these novel cir- 

 cumstances. I, of course, am bent double. Ninety 

 yards, eighty ; a little further and I'll try, when— 

 the red dog catches sight of the birds and dashes 

 out to the right, the sheep wheel off to the left, 

 and I am left exposed. With loud cacklings the 

 heavy birds rise, and the duck follow suit with a 

 roar like that of an approaching train. The game 

 is up, let's go home. 



On my way I cross a rocky knoll right at the 

 water's edge. It is fenced in, and a nasty fence 

 it is. When I am in the middle of it the dogs 

 run out a hare to my right, which is foolish enough 

 to cross the open in front of me, so I have to carry 

 one home after all. Not twenty yards off they put 

 up a covey of stone-hens, but it is too late to do 

 more than make a note for another occasion. As 

 I go up the road a flock of rock-pigeons settle just 

 beyond a native hut. That wall will cover me, 

 and, what is more, hide the dogs. I steal along 

 it till I make out one pecking amongst the stones, 



