UNLUCKY DAY. 258 



ned our march through a thinly- wooded, level country. 

 It was a lovely morning ■, the sun rose in great pplen- 

 dor J and the sky was beautifully overcast with clouds. 

 Having proceeded about ten miles, the country became 

 thickly covered with detached forest-trees and groves 

 of wait-a-bit thorns. The guides now informed us that 

 the water, which is called by the Beohuanas " Lepe-- 

 by," was only a short distance in-advance, upon which 

 I saddled steeds, and rode ahead with the B ashman, in- 

 tending to hunt for an hour before breakfast. Present- 

 ly we reached an open glade in the forest; where I ob- 

 served a hprd of zebras in advance ; and on my left 

 stood a troop of springboks, with two leopards watch- 

 ing them from behind a bush. I rode on, and soon fell 

 in with a troop of hartebeests, ani, a little after, with 

 a large herd of blue wildebeests and pallahs. I follow- 

 ed these for some distance, when they were re-enforced 

 by two other herds of pallahs and wildebeests. Three 

 black rhinoceroses now trotted across my path. Pres- 

 ently I sprang from my horse, and fired right and left 

 at a princely bull blue wildebeest. He got both balls, 

 but did not fall ; and I immediately lost sight of him 

 in. the dense ranks of his shaggy companions. The 

 game increased as we proceeded, until the whole forest 

 seemed alive with a variety of beautifully-colored ani- 

 mals. On this occasion I was very unfortunate ; I 

 might have killed any quantity of game if venison had 

 been my object ; but I was trying to get a few very su- 

 perior heads of some of the master bucks of the pallahs. 

 Of these I wounded four select old bucks, but in the 

 dust and confusion caused by the innumerable quanti- 

 ty of the game I managed to lose them all. 



We had now ridden many miles from the wagons ; 

 and feeling faint from want of food, I dropped the- chase 



