Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



out of it. The oryx I shot as we were short of 

 meat ; he was the finest hull I got at all. The 

 amount of stopping these hig beasts take is ex- 

 traordinary. I certainly killed one or two stone 

 dead with one shot, but it was very hard to do. 

 This one I shot through the lungs, and again in 

 the fore leg as he galloped off ; but even then I 

 had to ride him nearly a mile, and give him 

 another bullet, to settle him. 



We now worked round towards our old tracks, 

 intending to revisit the Toyo plains en route to 

 Berbera. We hoped the young grass might have 

 tempted the "sig" into the open country; so 

 far, bar the three I saw one night when it was 

 too late to shoot, we had seen none at all. One 

 afternoon, then, saw us pitching camp on the 

 south-eastern edge of the rolling plains, and that 

 evening I saw a hartebeest ; there were two of 

 them, large, black-looking antelope. We were not 

 fairly out on the plain, and there were scattered 

 bushes about; I was thus able to do a careful 

 stalk. But on approaching I had to take my 

 eyes off the sig for a bit, and they suddenly 

 vanished, nothing to be seen but an aoul doe 

 where they had been. After waiting a bit, I 

 showed myself, the aoul doe trotting off, and all 

 at once being joined by the two sig, going like 

 the wind; where they had come from I don't 

 know. Anyway, off went all three for a mile 



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