SUGHEIT. 231 



descended to a bed of shingle of wide- stretching dimen- 

 sions, on which moving objects were indistinctly seen in 

 the uncertain hazy light, at first thought to be kyang, 

 then decided to be antelope. Two peculiar features were 

 now observable in our direct route, lying close together, 

 apparently rocks which would be islets when the floods 

 were out. For these we steered, determining there to break- 

 fast. As we alighted, a buck antelope sped along far on 

 the other side, coming down a shelving bank on to the 

 shingle, as though he were about to cross it. He was far 

 away ; but Phuttoo handed me the Whitworth. I said, 

 " Well, we have lots of bullets and lead ; how far off is 

 he ? " They said, " three hundred yards ; " so, putting 

 the sight to three hundred, I rested the rifle against a 

 rock, and aimed high and forward. The ball was seen 

 ricochetting far beyond the buck, which had started, and 

 then stood, head drooping. "Mara, mara," exclaimed 

 the shikarries in great excitement. And so it appeared. 

 The animal did not move : so, making arrangements, I 

 advanced on him, and, as I neared him, he lay down 

 evidence enough of his being mortally wounded. Gaining 

 his rear, I finished him ; and a fine, handsome animal he 

 proved, in prime condition, a different species from the 

 black buck, the antelope of the plains ; being of a rufous 

 colour, with a thick felt of fur, the winter coat, and fine 

 tapering horns with sharp points bending forwards, with 

 regularly placed transverse bars from the base to six inches 

 from the tip in front, smoothing off to the rear : there 

 was a curious puffy lump at the nostrils. 



Continuing our way, I observed something shewing 

 above the level of the gravelly plain, so checked my horse, 

 and called the attention of the shikarries, and asked if it 

 were not the horns of an antelope. They said, it was a 

 stick. But, while thus conjecturing in an under tone, the 



