226 



GIRAFFE HUNTING. 



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caps, and a goodly piece of meat should game be 

 killed, a bargain was at once concluded. All now 

 was excitement, for horses required saddling, dogs 

 tying up — a performance that they much resented — 

 and instructions had to be issued for the maintenance 

 of order and discipline during my absence. 



My driver was to ride the dun horse, so he 

 borrowed a spur from me, and provided himself 

 with 2ijambocky while I selected the strawberry roan 

 as my mount. Now Strawberry w^:: a most endui"- 

 ing beast, fast as Cape horses are generally made, and 

 a willing goer when once started ; but here was the 

 hitch — ivlien once started. For a week or more he had 

 had nothing to do, so I apprehended a little unplea- 

 santness as soon as I was in the saddle. I was not 

 disappointed, for the moment my nag felt my 

 weight he went round the camp, bounding upwards 

 without much forward progression, as many an 

 observer may have seen deer do before breaking 

 into their proper stride, if suddenly disturbed upon a 

 hillside. 



But buck-jumpers I have had some experience of, 

 both in Australia anH other parts of the earth, so I 

 kept Mr. Strawberry s head up, and let him perform, 

 which he sooner tired of than I did. How is it, I would 

 ask the reader, that a confirmed buck-jumper is 

 almost invariably a good horse ? 



However, we soon got started, amid a chorus of 

 the most doleful bowlings from the pack of dogs. 

 Our guide proved himself a marvel of speed and 

 endurance, keeping the horses at a pace of not less 

 than six miles an hour. I never remember anywhere 

 to have seen such numbers of small bucks ; in less 

 than an hour I counted over a score and a half, all 

 of which kept their forms so close that they could 

 have been killed with No. 5 shot. 



At length the predicted spoor was reached. It 

 was along a partially dry river bed, at one pool of 



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