THE " TREK-BOKEN." 159 



and rider over with a charge that came and was past in 

 an instant. 



The Boers gave very interesting accounts of the enor- 

 mous herds of game in the interior. They acknowledged 

 that a large herd of eland such as we had seen was a fine 

 sight, but said that the whole face of the country covered 

 for miles with a densely-packed body of blesbok, bontebok, 

 springbok, and wildebeest, was a still finer one. They said 

 in that the great "trek-boken," or journey of the springbok, 

 the numbers were inconceivable; that they destroyed all 

 the grass, leaving the plain like a vast cattle-fold ; that 

 hundreds died from being in the rear, and not getting 

 anything to eat, while those in front were fat, but from 

 this very cause became at last lazy, and gradually fell in 

 the rear, to become thin in their turn, and again move to 

 the front. 



