100 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



I saw three buffalo charging down on us, while at the 

 same moment I was conscious that Prittie (who was 

 still on his mule and had no rifle) had seized an over- 

 hanging branch of a tree and disappeared up it ; while 

 the boys had, with incredible agility, all got up into 

 another, where they hung like a swarm of bees, with 

 Prittie's boy in front defiantly holding out a Browning 

 pistol. I and the askaris with us opened fire ; the 

 buffalo turned and went off to our left ; one dropped, 

 while the other two disappeared into the bush. We 

 found the fallen one dead, but for some little time 

 we waited very much on the qui vive, for buffalo have 

 a nasty way of hiding in bush and then charging you. f 

 However, we saw no more of the other two." 



Here is a thrilling story of an adventure with a 

 buffalo which Mr. W. C. Scully relates in his volume 

 of South African reminiscences l : " When I was 

 camped near Ship Mountain a messenger arrived one 

 night from the camp of the hunters, asking whether 

 we had, by any chance, a man among us possessing 

 any surgical knowledge. One of the party, a man 

 named Tyrer, had been gored by a buffalo and badly 

 hurt. 



The accident had been a peculiar one ; not alone 

 was the nature of the injury unusual, but so were the 

 circumstances under which it had been inflicted. Tyrer, 

 on his way to the camp late in the afternoon, .had 

 wounded a very large buffalo. On the following morn- 

 ing he went to the locality where the animal had dis- 

 appeared, with the intention of taking up the spoor. 

 Here the jungle was very dense. Suddenly he came 

 face to face with the creature he was seeking. Il 

 1 See Bibliography, 13. 



