HUNTING GEMSBOKS. 93 



far gemsbok, with a fine old bull feeding at a little dis- 

 tance by himself, their long, sharp horns glanoing in 

 the morning sun like the cheese-toasters of a troop of 

 dragoons. I scarcely allowed myself a moment to feast 

 my eyes on the thrilling sight before me, when I re- 

 turned to my boys, and with them concerted a plan to 

 circumvent them.* 



We agreed that Jacob and I should endeavor to ride 

 by a circuitous course a long way to windward of tiie 

 herd, and that Cobus should then give chase and drive 

 them toward us. The wind was westerly, but the dis- 

 trict to which this herd seemed to belong unfortunate- 

 ly lay to the northward. Jacob and I rode steadily on, 

 occasionally looking behind us, and, presently taking 

 up a commanding position, strained our eyes in the di- 



* At this time I was very much in the dark as to the speed of the 

 gemsbok, having been led by a friend to believe that a person even 

 of my weight, if tolerably moonted, coiJd invariably, after a long chase, 

 ride right mto them. This, hovfever, is not the case. My friend was 

 deceived in the opinion which he bad formed. The fact of the matter 

 was,*hat he had been bunting a long way to windward of a party who 

 were bunting on the same plains with bim, and several of the gemsboks 

 which he bad. killed bad previous^ been severely chased by the other 

 party. In tbe whole course of my adventures with gemsbok I only re- 

 member four occasions, when mounted on the pick of my stud (wbicji 

 I nearly sacrificed in tbe attempt), that alone and unassisted I succeed- 

 ed in riding the oryx to a stimd-still. Tbe plan which 1 adopted,, and 

 which is generally used by tbe Boers, was to mount my light Hotten- 

 tots or Bushmen on horses of great endurance, and thus, as it were, 

 convert them into greyhounds, with which I coursed the gemsbok as 

 we do stags in Scotland with our rough deer-bounds. A " tail-on-end" 

 chase is sometimes saved, in parts where the hunter* from a previous 

 knowledge of the country, knows the course whibb.the gemsbok will 

 take ; when, havingfirst discovered the herd, the after-rider is directed 

 to remain quiet until the hunter shall have proceeded by a wide semi- 

 circular course some miles to windward of tbe herd, which being ac 

 complished, the Hottentot gives the troop a tremendous burst toward 

 his master, veho, by riding hard for their line, generally manages to get 



within easy shot as tbe panting herd strains past him. 



