102 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



quiriug light to hold the spoor, could necessarily only 

 follow by day, and were soon obliged to give up the pur- 

 suit on account of their horses being without water 



CHAPTER VI. 



Hard Chase of an Oryx — A brindled Gnoo reduces himself to a " dead 

 Lock," and is taken — Faterson slays a Gemsbok and a Ball Wilde- 

 beest — He leaves for Colesberg — Ostrich Eggs — Novel Method of' 

 canying them — Anecdotes of the Osti-ich — Affray with a Porcupine 

 — He proves a rough Eider for my Horse — Narrow Escape from the 

 Thrust of a dying Oryx — The grateful Water-root — ^Troops of Spring- 

 boks cover the Face of the Land — Their Migrations— The finest shot 

 at my Leisure — Beer Vley. 



At an early hour on the morning of the 16th Pat- 

 erson and I again took the field, accompanied by our 

 three after-riders, and, having ridden several miles in 

 a northerly direction, we started an oryx, to which Pat- 

 erson and his after-rider gave immediate chase. I then 

 rode in an easterly direction, and shortly fell in with a 

 fine old cow oryx, which we instantly charged. She 

 stole away at a killing pace, her black tail streaming 

 in the wind, and her long, sharp horns laid well back 

 over her shoulders. Aware of her danger, and anxious 

 to gain the desert, she put forth her utmost speed, and 

 strained across the bushy plain. She led us a tearing 

 chase of upward of five miles in a northerly course, Co- 

 bus sticking well into her, and I falling far behind. 

 After a sharp burst of about three miles, Cobus and 

 the gray disappeared over a ridge about half a mile 

 ahead of me , I here mounted a fresh horse, which had 



