MIGRATION OP SPRINGBOKS. 113 



they covered might have been somewhere about half a 

 mile. I stood upon the fore chest of my wagon for 

 nearly two hours, lost in wonder at the novel arid won- 

 derful scene which was passing before me, and had 

 some difficulty in convincing myself that it was reality 

 which I beheld, and not the wild and exaggerated pic- 

 ture of a hunter's dream. During this time their vast 

 legions continued streaming through the neck in the 

 hills in one unbroken compact phalanx. At length I 

 saddled up, and rode into the middle of them with my 

 rifle and after-riders, and fired into the ranks until four- 

 teen had fallen, when I cried " Enough." We then re- 

 traced our steps to secure from the ever-voracious vul- 

 tures the venison which lay strewed along my gory 

 track. Having collected the springboks at different 

 bushes, and concealed them vnth brushwood, we re- 

 turned to eamp, where I partook of coffee while my 

 men were inspanning. 



A person anxious to kill many springboks might have 

 bagged thirty or forty that morning. I never, in all 

 my subsequent career, fell in with so dense a herd of 

 these antelopes, nor found them allow me to ride so near 

 them. Having inspanned, we proceeded with the wag- 

 ons to take up the fallen game, which being accom- 

 plished, we held for the small periodical stream beside 

 which the wandering Boers were encamped, that point 

 being in my line of march for Beer Vley. Vast and 

 surprising as was the herd of springboks which I had 

 that morning witnessed, it was infinitely surpassed by 

 what I beheld on the march from my vley to old Sweirs's 

 eamp ; for, on our clearing the low range of hills through 

 which the springboks had been pouring, I beheld the 

 boundless plains, and even the hill sides which stretch- 

 ed away on every side of me, thickly covered, not with 



