120 BETTER LUCK THIS TIME. 



who was by be, restrained my impatience, and told me to 

 wait. Soon after the elands had turned, a man on horse- 

 back was seen to canter over the hill that they appeared 

 steering for ; he pulled up, took off his hat and waved it, 

 and fired a shot ; he was too far off to have done much 

 damage by the shot, but the ruse was immediately suc- 

 cessful, the whole herd wheeled suddenly into their old 

 line, and came thundering along towards us. I looked 

 at my caps to see if all was right, and rammed the bullets 

 down tight; such a herd of game were coming on, at 

 least two hundred of them, bulls and cows, with quite 

 young calves. 



The leaders were soon in line with us. I picked out 

 a large fat blue-looking bull, which I saw fall dead at 

 the shot. Most of the others, as they heard the whistle 

 of the bullet, made prodigious leaps in the air, the effect 

 of which was extraordinary, as, from their great size and 

 apparent unwieldiness, these bounds seemed almost impos- 

 sible. With the second barrel I pinked another bull, 

 but he did not fall. These shots caused the elands to 

 gallop on very fast ; we mounted our horses and started 

 after the herd, a second eland having been dropped by 

 one of the Dutchmen, while a third was soon seen to leave 

 the main body and stay behind, evidently in difficulties. 

 I could not load very well while going at full speed, so 

 reduced my pace a little to accomplish it. I had scarcely 

 completed the operation, when my horse came down on 

 his head with a crash, and rolled over, flinging me far 

 from him. I came down on my hands and shoulder, and 

 fortunately was not hurt. Upon getting up, I found, to my 



