CHAPTER II 



A SHORT account of my first day amongst the springbuck and their wild 

 surroundings may probably interest such of my readers as may not be familiar 

 with the methods now employed in pursuing these animals. First let me 

 say that a springbuck hunt is, like any shoot at home, a thing that must be 

 properly arranged beforehand. A rifle -shooter going out by himself into 

 the Karroo stands but a poor chance with the bucks, for they are nearly sure 

 to escape up wind past him, whilst distributing and frightening all the troops 

 that may have collected on the favourite feeding-grounds during the night. 

 In this respect springbuck resemble wild-fowl, which, even though repeatedly 

 disturbed, will resort night after night to the same feeding-grounds when their 

 favourite food is in a ripe condition. It is far better, therefore, in every case 

 to fall in with the mode of hunting first brought into play by the early 

 trekkers, and to form a party, as each and all not only make the meeting much 

 more agreeable from a social standpoint, but also largely contribute to each 

 other's sport by driving the bucks to one another. 



On Tuesday 29th February, under the guidance of Dr. Maloney, to whom 

 I have before referred as the principal hunter of Beaufort West, a party of 

 eight of us assembled at that gentleman's house at mid-day, and were soon 

 seated in our carts or on horses ready to start for the evening's hunt. Ample 

 provisions, ammunition, and warlike stores were deposited in the hunting- 

 carts, and the whole turn-out, armed with Martini-Henry rifles, presented a 

 much more formidable appearance than seemed consistent with the pursuit of 

 the gentle and soft-eyed springbuck. After much good-humoured chaff we 

 all set off down a road leading past the cool avenues and fruit-gardens out on 

 to the broad expanse of the wilderness known as the Great Karroo, a vast 

 uncultivated plain, smooth as a billiard-table, stretching away in all directions 

 as far as the eye can reach, except only in the west, where frowns the sombre 



