VAAL RHEBOK SHOOTING. 131 



of ringdoves cooed softly around, while gorgeous 

 honeybirds, finches, and kingfishers, flitted from 

 bush to bush, or darted arrow-like down the stream. 

 The little rock rabbits (the coney of Scripture) 

 glided merrily about the surface of the rocks, and 

 here and there big rock pigeons bustled on fleet 

 pinions. The soft and quiet beauty of this kloof, 

 on that calm, warm morning, teeming as it did with 

 the life of birds and the luxuriance of flowers, was 

 a thing not to be easily forgotten. On such a day, 

 and amid such surroundings, the rougher and ruder 

 phases of South African life up country — and they 

 are not few — are easily forgotten and forgiven. 



Presently, as we cross the sand bed of a dry 

 water-course, the Kaffir stops, and points to the fresh 

 spoor of a leopard, but explains that the night 

 marauder has long since retired to his mountain 

 den. A few years before, when my host first settled, 

 in the poort, these animals were very numerous, 

 and committed great havoc amongst his colts and 

 flocks. From their nocturnal habits, they are very 

 rarely seen in daylight, so that war had to be waged 

 against them by the use of strychnine concealed in 

 meat ; they are now somewhat less numerous and 

 less troublesome. Presently we strike again to the 

 right, and ascend the mountain ; it is stifi" work, 

 indeed, and requires both lungs and muscles to be in 

 good trim, which, happily, is the case with both of 

 us. Having traversed another kloof, and ascended 

 another hillside, we near the ground where we 

 expect to find rhebok. After half-an-hour's further 

 very severe climbing, during which time Igneese 

 was anxiously scanning the mountain-sides, and 

 searching here and there for spoor, we came upon 



