A Breath from the Veldt 207 



see Pointer's head bobbing up as he approached to try and take hold of the 

 buck ; and being an old dog, nearly deaf, and having never before seen a big 

 wounded animal, the smell of blood had evidently excited him. He was far 

 too plucky to be of any use. Encouraged by my presence — for I had now 

 got off my horse and was within twenty yards of the two animals — he made 

 a rush in, for which piece of intrepidity the sable sent him flying with a blow 

 from what appeared to be the flat of one of his horns. I was waiting to get 

 a clear shot at the buck's neck, when I saw a vision of the dog on the sable's 

 back and fired at once, hoping to save my canine friend's life. But alas ! the 

 rapidity of that horn-thrust had been just a second too quick. The movements 

 of the two animals were so rapid that at the moment of my firing I could 

 not see precisely what had happened, though Van Staden, who was behind me, 

 saw the whole thing. What had occurred was this : both animals rolled over 

 together, and by the cruellest of bad luck the sable had pierced the dog's 

 shoulder with his horns, and thrown him forward past the line of his neck at the 

 very second I had pulled. My bullet therefore passed through the dog's head into 

 the sable's neck, killing both the animals instantaneously. I need hardly say 

 I was bitterly disappointed at losing my one and only dog, and was disposed 

 at first to blame myself for firing too quickly ; but it was clearly one of those 

 extraordinary accidents against which not even the most careful sportsman 

 can guard himself. The only consolation I could think of was that the poor 

 dog had been terribly wounded by the horns of the buck, and as he was far 

 too plucky and impetuous to ever become a good " baying dog," his next 

 encounter with a wounded sable would probably have cost him his life.^ 



The waggons coming up, we put my prize up bodily, intending to take 

 him on to the river, a short way, before cutting him up. He was a perfectly 

 adult male, the horns, though thick and strong, with a fine backward sweep, 

 measuring 36 inches — the size of the average adult. 



A temporary delay being caused by Tace, the old man and myself followed 

 the retreating herd. Two animals were unfortunately hard hit, and though we 

 did our best to come up with them, we never saw them again. This losing of 

 wounded animals is one of the saddest incidents of hunting in heavy bush 

 country, and unhappily one of common occurrence, as all the big antelopes are 

 hard to kill, and will carry off wounds that would bring deer to a standstill at 



1 Any one who wishes to know what a sable can do with his horns will do well to turn to the end of 

 chap. ix. of Mr. Selous's last work. He will read there how, out of a pack of strong dogs loosed after a 

 wounded bull, four were killed outright, and four more badly wounded. 



