74 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



right-handed, and were followed by the rest of the 

 party. After several minutes' desperate scrambling 

 up hill, through euphorbias, aloes, and thorny scrub, 

 and over boulders, Igneese and I stopped for a blow, 

 and took a cautious glance upwards. Instantly I 

 beheld, one hundred yards above, perched on a rock 

 which jutted abruptly from the mountain, one of the 

 klipspringers — the ram — looking eagerly round for 

 his enemies. I lost not a moment, but, with hasty 

 aim, fired ; and as luck would have it, I dropped the 

 antelope with a bullet through the middle of the 

 body, rather too far back from the shoulder. The 

 klipspringer toppled headlong from his rock, and in 

 breathless haste the Kaffir and I raced up to secure 

 him. Before we could get up, however, the quarry 

 was on his legs again, scrambling to denser coverts 

 for sanctuary, though in vain. The Kaffir cries in 

 Dutch "Schiet! schiet ! " ("Shoot! shoot!"), and 

 with the cry another bullet at thirty paces brings the 

 bok to earth again, and the Kaffir's knife soon ends 

 his struggles. 



Meanwhile four other shots had echoed to our 

 right, and fifteen minutes afterwards the rest of the 

 party appeared with another klipspringer. We had 

 been unusually fortunate thus early in the day, for, 

 as a rule, these antelopes take an infinity of trouble 

 to find, and still more to secure. Then we pursued 

 our way, and reached the mountain top, which was 

 flat, and covered with long waving grass. In a 

 couple of hours more we sighted another brace of 

 klipspringers ; but this time, before we were within 

 range, they were springing up the mountain cliffs 

 like balls of india-rubber, and were soon far out of 

 sight. Descending to a hollow in the hills, Igneese 



