WHEN PROFESSORS DIFFER. 



227 



which the game had evidently stopped to drink. 

 Here there was a consultation between my driver and 

 the stranger, when words ran high upon some points 

 of venericy which I was called upon to decide. This 

 was really too absurd ; it was like two professors 

 differing upon a Greek root, and calling in a servant 

 to adjudicate between them. However, I dismounted, 

 and certainly was rewarded for my trouble, for in 

 the damp sand was displayed the most wonderful mass 

 of pugs I think I ever previously or since have seen. 

 I can only account for so many and different kinds 

 of animals having visited this diminutive pool being 

 caused by the presence at the large vley of my pre- 

 decessors, the Griqua hunters. Many of these 

 footprints I could easily distinguish, but the point in 

 dispute was one of the latest impressions — whether 

 it was made by a bush-pig or a wart-hog. The spoor 

 of both are very similar, as may well be imagined, but 

 the stranger pointed out the differences between the 

 two that none but an expert could have noticed, the 

 chief among which was that the former did not have 

 its hoof as deeply cleft as the latter. This I could 

 well imagine to be the case, as the bush-pig, as 

 a rule, frequents high and therefore dry ground, 

 while the wart-hog is never found far from where he 

 can have his daily mud-bath. However, I deemed 

 it best to plead ignorance, so as not to offend the 

 amour propre of either disputant ; but this passive 

 course did not settle matters, for the controversy 

 was renewed during the day whenever opportunity 

 offered, and even at the watch-fire long after I had 

 retired to rest in the interior of my waggon. 

 Natives can differ without getting angry or quarrelling, 

 so no bad feelings were engtiidered between these 

 two worthies ; can educated and Christian gentlemen 

 always do likewise ? 



The spoor of the giraffe, after leaving the water- 

 course, led a long way by its margin, and, from the 



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