WILDEBEEST SHOOTING. 83 



risen far above the horizon, and day was just beginning 

 to dawn, when, gently raising my head and looking 

 round, I saw, on one side of me, four wildebeests, and 

 on the other side ten. They were coming to drink ; 

 slowly and suspiciously they approached the water, 

 and, having convinced themselves that all was right, 

 they trotted boldly up and commenced drinking. Se- 

 lecting the finest bull, I fired, and sent a bullet through 

 his shoulder, when, splashing through the water, he 

 bounded madly forward, and, having run about a hund- 

 red yards, polled over in the dewy grass. I did not 

 show myself, other game being in sight, but lay still in 

 the hole. In about an hour an old springbok fed up to 

 within three hundred yards of me, and continued brows- 

 ing there for a considerable time. As no more wilde- 

 beests seemed to be approaching, and as I was very 

 hungry, I put up my sight and took a cool, calculating 

 aim at him, and sent the ball through the middle of his 

 shoulder. I then left m^ hole, and, having inspected 

 the wildebeest bull, which was a noble specimen, I 

 walked up to my wagon, and sent the boys to cut up 

 the venison and preserve the head carefully. 



On the following morning I woke as day dawned, 

 and held for my hole beside the vley, but had not gone 

 two hundred yards round the hillock when I saw an 

 old springbok feeding, which I stalked, and broke his 

 fore-leg. He went off toward the wagon, when the 

 boys slipped "Ganger" (one of my greyhounds), who 

 at once ran into him and pulled him down. Having 

 lain about an hour at the vley, two old wildebeests ap- 

 preached up wind, and, suspecting the ground, described 

 a wide semicircle, like our red deer. I wounded one 

 of them, but he did not drop. I, however, managed to 

 send a ball. through the shoulder of the other, when he 



