72 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



up a similar position, he sent the Hottentots round a 

 herd of springboks which were feeding on the plain, to 

 endeavor to move them gently toward us. It was a 

 very beautiful thing altogether, and succeeded well. 

 The whole herd' came on slowly, right toward where I 

 lay, until within a hundred yards, when I selected a 

 fine fat buck, which I rolled over with a ball in the 

 shoulder. This was the first fair shot that I had ob- 

 tained at a springbok on these plains. I have always 

 been reckoned by those who know my shooting to be a 

 very fair rifle-shot, whether standing or running, but I 

 do not profess to make sure work much beyond one 

 hundred and ten paces, or thereabouts.* 



* The springbok is so termed by the colonists on account of its pe- 

 culiar habit of springing or Caking extraordinaiy bounds, rising to an 

 incredible height in the air, when pursued. The extraordinary man- 

 ner in which springboks are capable of springing is best seen when 

 they are chased by a dog. On these occasions, away start the herd, 

 with a succession of strange perpendicular bounds, rising with curved 

 loins high into the air, and at the same time elevating the snowy folds 

 of long white hair on their haunches and along their back, 'which im- 

 parts to them a peculiar fairy-like appearance, different from any other 

 animal. They bound to the height of ten or twelve feet, with the elas- 

 ticity of au India-rubber ball, clearing at each spring from twelve to 

 fifteen feet of ground, without apparently the slightest exertion. In 

 performing the spring, they appear for an instant as if suspended in the 

 air, when down come aU four feet again together, and, striking the 

 plain, away they soar again, as if about to fake flight. The herd only 

 adopt this motion for a few hundred yards, when they subside into a 

 light elastic trot, arching their gracefiil necks and lowering their noses 

 to the ground, as if in sportive mood. Presently pulling up, they face 

 about, and reoonnoiter the object of their alarm. In crossing any path 

 or wagon-road on which men have lately trod, the springbok invaria- 

 bly clears it by a single surprising bound ; and when a. herd of perhaps 

 many thousands have to cross a track of the sort, it is extremely beau- 

 tiful to see how each antelope performs this feat, so suspicious are they 

 of the ground on which their enemy, man, has trodden. They bound 

 in a similar manner when passing to leeward of a lion, or any other 

 animal of which they entertain an instinctive dread. 



The accumulated masses of living creatures which the springboks 



