380 Great and Small Game of Africa 



the top of a rock about 3000 feet high, where I might have a good view of 

 all the valleys. We reached the place about three-quarters of an hour 

 before sunset, and were just preparing a place for sleeping in a cleft of rock, 

 when a gun-bearer of mine, Abdallah, one of the best men I know for 

 spotting game, came up in a state of frightful excitement, saying there was 

 a herd of beiras. Running on to some rocks, I just saw two of them dis- 

 appearing at full gallop among some big slabs about 600 feet high. 



Heading them as best I could, I got to the top of a protruding rock, 

 to see, about 200 yards away, six beiras in single file in the middle of the 

 slabs. Resting my rifle comfortably, I opened fire, and got three in five 

 shots. It was just light enough to shoot, and as the distance was too great 

 to make out the males, I meant to kill as many as possible. They were 

 rolling down the slabs, and, not knowing where the shots were coming 

 from, kept for a while bounding about the rocks instead of going away. 

 A wounded one was uttering a sort of whistle. Then one of the gun- 

 bearers signalled to me to come on the ridge above, and there, about 70 

 yards off, were the three last beiras. I shot one dead, missed two shots at 

 another, and got him with a third, and the only one left went off before I 

 had time to shoot again. All this happened in a very few minutes. I had 

 two Lee-Metford repeating sporting rifles, and made very quick shooting. 



It was pitch dark when all the game was collected near the place where 

 we spent the night. Five beiras is not a common sight, and I thought 

 rightly that I had had a great piece of luck. Skinning the game and 

 preparing the trophies took until the middle of the night. Three times 

 we heard the call of a beira coming near the very place where we were 

 roasting one of these antelopes for food — a sort of whistle, heard a long way 

 off; but shooting was out of the question, as the night was dark. I had 

 obtained three males and two females. The horns of the male, when old, 

 are black, smooth at the end, and very hard and sharp. 1 The horns of the 



1 Good specimens measure close on § inches in length. — Ed. 



