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A Breath from the Veldt 



he gallops across my right front, and I give him another shot, of which he 

 takes no notice. This manoeuvre on his part is only a last effort ; before he 

 has covered fifty yards his pace settles into a walk, and, swaying from side to 

 side, he falls to rise no more. Jan, who had by this time come up, said he 

 thought the wildebeests must almost have trodden on me (" omper ha-trap ") 

 before he saw the smoke of my rifle — a notion that any of my readers will 



CANTERING OUT TO FEED 



understand if, stalking in a deer forest, he has ever seen another stalker getting 

 a shot at a stag whilst he himself lies and watches with his telescope from a 

 distant hill. You lie and wonder how close the stalker really wants to get, and 

 imagine he is firing off his rifle almost in the beast's face, whereas in reality 

 the shot may have been taken at a distance of loo yards. 



And now for a few remarks on the natural history of the black wildebeest, 

 and its movements when at large. It will be seen from what I have already 

 said how rapidly this highly interesting ruminant is becoming extinct, and how 



