130 EXrEUITION INTO 



his back^ and wliiskiiig- in ludicrous concert with the rock- 

 ing- of his disproportioned frame, he g-lided g-allantly along" 

 " hke some tall ship upon the ocean's bosom/' and seemed 

 to leave whole leag'ues behind him at each stride. The 

 g-round was of the most treacherous description j a rotten 

 black soil overgrown with long" coarse g'rass, which con- 

 cealed from view innumerable cracks and fissures that mo- 

 mentarily threatened to throw down my horse. For the 

 first five minutes I rather lost than g-ained g-round, and 

 despairing* over such a country, of ever diminishing- the 

 distance, or improving- my acquaintance with this og-re in 

 seven-league boots, I dismounted, and had the satisfiiction 

 of hearing- two balls tell roundly upon his plank-like stern. 

 But I might as well have fired at a wall : he neither swerved 

 from his course, nor slackened his pace, and had pushed 

 on so far a-head during- the time I was reloading-, that 

 after remounting-, I had some difficulty in even keeping- 

 sig-ht of him among- the trees. Closing* ag-ain, however, 

 I repeated the dose on the other quarter, and spurred 

 along- my horse, ever and anon sinking* to his fetlock, the 

 g-iraffe now flagging- at each stride, until, as I was coming* 

 up hand over hand, and success seemed certain, down I 

 came headlong- — ni)^ horse having* fallen into a pit, and 

 lodged me close to an ostrich's nest, near which two of 

 the old birds A^ ere sitting*. 



There were no bones broken, but the violence of the 

 shock had caused the lashing-s of my rifle to g'ive wa}^, and 

 had doubled the stock in half — the barrels only now hang-- 

 ing* to it by the trigger guard. Nothing- dismayed by 

 this heavy calamity, I remounted my jaded beast, and one 

 more effort broug-ht me a-head of my wearied victim, which 

 stood still and allowed me to approach. In vain I attemp- 

 ted to bind my fractured riffe with a pocket handkerchief, 

 in order to admit of my administering- the coup de grace 



