254 THE TEEEIBLE, 



and directly after the buffalo fell dead by Frolic, wbo 

 then rose and limped towards us. He was much hurt, 

 and a powder-flask which lay in his game-bag was 

 stamped flat. The buffalo was too weak to use his full 

 strength upon him, having probably exhausted all his 

 remaining energy in the chase : otherwise the Hottentot 

 would undoubtedly have been killed, since a man is 

 safer under the paws of a wounded lion, than under the 

 head of an infuriated buffalo. Never did I feel more 

 grateful to a protecting Providence, than when this poor 

 fellow came to us ; for his escape without material injury 

 was little short of miraculous." * 



Who, that has looked on the meek, deer-like face of a 

 kangaroo, would imagine that any danger could attend a 

 combat with so gentle a creature ? Yet it is well known 

 that strong dogs are often killed by it, the kangaroo seiz- 

 ing and hugging the dog with its fore-paws, while with 

 one kick of its muscular hind-leg, it rips up its antagonist, 

 and tears out its bowels. Even to man there is peril, as 

 appears from the following narrative. One of the hunter's 

 dogs had been thus despatched, and he thus proceeds : — 



" Exasperated by the irreparable loss of my poor dog, 

 and excited by the then unusual scene before me, I 

 hastened to revenge ; nothing doubting, that, with one 

 fell swoop of my formidable club, my enemy would be 

 prostrate at my feet. Alas ! the fates, and the stiU more 

 remorseless white ants, frustrated my murderous inten- 

 sions, and all but left me a victim to my strange and 



* Life in the Wilderness, p. 173. 



