A Breath from the Veldt 



r-9 



tunity for avenging his injury, for he was quite disabled, and a bullet mercifully 

 put an end at once to his display of indomitable courage. This was a bull in 

 the prime of life ; the palms of the horn were smooth and rounded, and had 

 not commenced the cracking and breaking which I imagine takes place in the 

 horns of all bulls over five years of age. That I had now obtained a specimen 

 was, I must say, due to good luck rather than to anything else, and on reflection 





SKETCHES OF BLACK WILDEBEESTS FROM NATURE 



I saw that if I was to kill another of these animals, some other means must be 

 tried, as they were now so fearfully wild that success by following was extremely 

 problematical. By watching them, both when in pursuit and when they were 

 moving at their leisure, I noticed that even though repeatedly disturbed they 

 always returned sooner or later to the same spot ; so on the following day I 

 proposed to Jan that after scaring the beasts from their resting-ground he should 

 attempt to drive them towards me. Jan, however, who at his best was never 



2 U 



