308 THE LAST DAY'S SPORT. 



The second heat was therefore merely a match, and the 

 strong-armed man won; he shied his hat in the air 

 and sent his horse home without walking over for the 

 third heat. The owner of the other horse then claimed the 

 stakes, and a regular row seemed the most likely result. 

 I left the course before matters were decided, so do not 

 know what decision this jockey club came to on the 

 knotty question. I should here mention that all the dis- 

 puting parties, as well as the riders, were English. 



I must say that I left the district of Natal with 

 regret, or rather I should say, its sports, climate, and 

 free life. My last day's sport was good, for three bucks 

 were shot, two of them being of the little blue buck 

 species that I have before mentioned. I rode round 

 my old haunts to bid them farewell, and also to look 

 the last on several of my black sporting companions. 

 The Kaffirs were all sorry to hear of my purposed 

 departure, and wished to know where I was going and 

 when I would return. Many of them were much puzzled 

 when they tried to think how people found the road on 

 the sea. They would say, " there were no trails or trees 

 to mark the journey, and the waves were alway saltering 

 their shapes." It was difficult to explain to these unma- 

 thematical minds the mysteries of "sights," latitude and 

 longitude, or the use of logarithms. I managed to make 

 them comprehend that by the stars and sun we under- 

 stood our position ; they could not quite make out the 

 system, and seemed to think that there must be Takata 

 (witchcraft) about it. 



I wondered, as I left these poor black heathens, whether 



