HARE-HUNTING. 435 



pursuit of puss. She gave some excellent sport of 

 the kind, doubling under the feet of one man, 

 starting up suddenly behind another who had 

 overrun her, and now leaping right into the face of 

 a third, upsetting him by the suddenness of the 

 shock, among his laughing companions. Her 

 moments were, however, numbered, an unlucky 

 stone thrown by a boy, struck her upon the head, 

 and extended her upon the ground, where she lay 

 for some minutes, throwing out her legs con- 

 vulsively in vain struggles to escape from us and 

 death. Having two fine guinea fowls suspended 

 from my saddle, I had so much consciousness 

 of what was due to humanity as to feel some sorrow 

 for this unnecessary destruction of life ; for, after 

 all our exertions to kill it, unless I made my supper 

 of the hare, we should have been obliged to have 

 left it to become the prey of some prowling beast 

 or bird. Accordingly, I determined to bury my 

 conscience in my stomach, bestowed the guinea- 

 fowls upon my companions, and picking up the 

 hare, inserted my knife between the back tendons 

 of one hind leg, pushed the other through the orifice, 

 and by the loop thus formed, suspended it from the 

 bow of my saddle in regular sportsman-like manner. 

 We proceeded about six miles farther towards the 

 south-west, and arrived at a place called Annee, an 

 open gravelly spot, with high mimosa trees standing 

 at some distance from each other. Just beyond us 



f f 2 



