96 TALES OF A NOMAD. 



antelopes in the thorn veldt I have sometimes been seen 

 by them, and have lain perfectly still. If they had not 

 seen enough of me to excite their alarm, they would 

 often remain gazing at me for several minutes. Some- 

 times they have recommenced feeding, and I have con- 

 tinued my stalk and shot one. 



I will conclude this account of the game shooting on 

 the high veldt by recommending the European sports- 

 man to practise himself at judging distance. The air is 

 so very clear and the ground so open that an object 500 

 yards off looks no farther than a similar object would in 

 England at 300 yards. 



Until the sportsman has become a good judge of 

 distance upon this kind of ground, he cannot expect to 

 make satisfactory shooting. I have seen many new 

 comers from England, India and America try their hand 

 at the game, and they have almost invariably been put 

 out of conceit with themselves. The fact is, the Boers 

 are out and out the best game shots in the world with 

 a rifle, and the sooner a new comer condescends to watch 

 them and learn their methods of sport, the sooner he 

 begins to enjoy himself. 



The Boers, although a brave and self-reliant race, are 

 very averse to war, for the reason that war to them 

 means a levee en masse upon the population. They 

 have to take their waggons and sometimes their families 

 with them on the war-path. In any case it means that 

 three-fourths of the able-bodied male population have 

 to take the field, thus only leaving a very few to look 

 after the families and the sheep and cattle. 



No Boer, therefore, will gratuitously provoke or enter 

 upon war unless he is absolutely compelled to. Their 

 whole national history is one unceasing record of 



