A Breath from the Veldt 



203 



brought with him the teeth and claws of a lion, which he said he had found 

 dead the previous year by the side of a sable antelope. By means of Office 

 and Prince I extracted all the information I could get out of him. The two 

 animals, he insisted, had killed each other, but the lion's skin having been 

 torn to pieces by hyenas and vultures, he could not see the horn-thrusts in 

 its side. 



Some two hours after our start the country became quite suddenly more 

 beautiful, the trees larger, and the bush so open that one could easily see any 





Sti^V^e. 



SKETCHES OF A SABLE BULL AT BAY 



animal at 200 or 300 yards' distance. My companion and I were, as usual, 

 riding ahead of the waggon, to direct its course through the bush, when 

 suddenly the old man turned in his saddle and said quietly, " Zwart-vit-pens ! " 

 (sable antelope). Following the direction of his gaze, I made out at once a 

 large black-and-white antelope standing looking at us at about 300 yards to 

 my left. We were so fairly in the open that there was no chance of his 

 standing for us to approach. He saw us at once, and starting off at a slow 

 canter in the direction of a small rocky kopjie about 500 yards away, and 

 gradually slackening speed almost to walking pace, vanished behind the hill. 



