TERRIFIC ^TORM. 141 



much too heavy to aot as after-fider, mi by the little 

 Bushboy named Ruyter, who had joined me on the 

 plains of the karroo. This Bushboy, although he had 

 learned to ride among the Boers, had an indifferent seat 

 on horseback, and would never push his horse to over- 

 take .any antelope if the ground were at all rough. 



Having explored the country to a qonsJderable dis- 

 tance, in the course of which we fell in with four sas- 

 sabies and a troop of hartebeests, I reisolyeci to ipake for 

 home, as the darkening sky and distant thundej to th} 

 southward thre?itened a heavy storm. I had not long, 

 however, determined on returning, when the wind, 

 which had been out of the north, suddenly veered round', 

 and blew hard from the south. In less than half an 

 hour the rain descended in torrents, the wind blew ex- 

 tremely cold, and the rain beat right in my face ; the 

 peals of thunder were most appalling, the most fear- 

 ful, I think, I had ever heard, the forked lightning 

 dancing above and around me with such vividness as 

 to pain my eyes: I thought every moment woul,d bo 

 my last. I shifted my saddle from " Sunday" to " The 

 ' Cow," and we pricked along at a smart pace. "We 

 were entering a thicket of thorny bushes, when a very 

 large gray -looking antelope stood up under one of them, 

 i could not see his head; but I at onoe knew that it 

 was the long-sought-for roan antelope, or bastard gems- 

 bok. CaroUus quickly handed me my little Moore ri- 

 ' fle, secure from the pelting storm in one of Mr^ Hugh 

 Snowie's patent water-proof covers. The noble buclc 

 now bounded forth, a superb old male, carrying a pair 

 of grand cimeter-shaped horns. He stood nearly five 

 feet high at the shoulder. "-Th6 Cow" knew well what 

 he had to Jo, and set off after him with right good will 

 over a most impracticable country. It was a succes 



