SPORT AND TRAVEL 165 



scrub immediately they heard my shot, which dropped 

 the wounded antelope in his tracks. On walking 

 up to him, I found that my bullet must just have 

 skimmed along his back, and catching him in the 

 back of the head had come out on his forehead. 



Having heard my shots, Graham now came gallop- 

 ing up, and finding that my stalk had been success- 

 ful at once rode back to the waggon to fetch my 

 camera and bring a pack horse to carry in the meat, 

 whilst I sat down on a carefully selected spot 

 and commenced to extract as many cactus spines 

 from my knees and elbows as possible. I found, 

 however, that numbers of these little prickles had 

 broken off and were very difficult to get hold of, and 

 the greater part of these I had to put up with ; but 

 though I could feel them for a long time afterwards, 

 if I pressed on the spots where they had disappeared, 

 they never caused any inflammation. Whilst taking 

 the antelope to the waggon, I very nearly stepped on 

 a rattlesnake, which lay perfectly still, coiled up under 

 a little sage tuft, and never moved until struck with 

 a piece of wood. These rattlesnakes appeared to me 

 to be as lethargic as are South African puff adders 

 on a cold morning, and I was glad that this one had 

 not been lying exactly in my path as I was crawling 

 up to the antelopes, or I might very easily have put 

 my hand on it before noticing it. The dead prong- 

 horned buck a fair-sized male, Graham said, and 

 in good condition weighed 109^ Ibs. as he lay, and 



