Fish River Bush, South Africa. 197 



bush, at the imminent risk of the clothes of an unaccustomed 

 stranger being torn into shreds by the prickly thorns of the 

 shrubbery. When the morning's spoor is traced, or the ani- 

 mal has been seen unalarmed on entering a kloof, the dogs 

 are fetched, and some of the hunting party enter and station 

 themselves about the head of the kloof, while the dogs are 

 led by another of the party into the bottom, and are driven 

 up so as to turn out the animal, which flies before them, and 

 passes, perhaps, within gunshot of some of the former party. 

 A well-known boer was accustomed in this case to follow on 

 the spoor alone, being stripped to the skin, and carrying 

 merely his bandelier round his waist, and his gun in his hand, 

 with his tobacco-pipe, which he lit every now and then to 

 observe how the wind set. Should it be with him he rested 

 till it took a more advantageous direction, when he carried 

 on the track farther through the bush. As the breaking of 

 a twig might be heard by the wakeful animal, or the rustle of 

 the thorns on his clothes, he had stripped himself naked. So 

 following on by cautious degrees, every now and then light- 

 ing his pipe and ascertaining the course of the wind, he would 

 at last come right upon the koodoo, lying in repose in his 

 cover in the bush, and have ample leisure to take a fatal aim. 

 The flesh forms the richest venison of any of the bucks of this 

 part of the colony, and what is not required for immediate 

 use is cut into strips, hung up and dried in the sun, forming 

 excellent biltung. The skin, as large and longer than an ox's, 

 is cleaned and pegged out on the ground to dry in the sun, and 

 is afterwards used for various farm purposes by the boer, or 

 sold, — chiefly being useful as the best material for vorslaghts, 

 the lash of their great waggon whips. Its value may be about 

 £1 a skin, which further makes excellent leather when dressed, 

 &c, for shoes. 



The next largest buck frequenting this bush is the powerful 

 Bushbuck (Tragelaphus,^t. sylvalica), of a dark brown colour, 

 having black spiral horns with a ridge, the number of twists 

 corresponding to its age. It is further recognized by half-a- 

 dozen white spots on the hind quarters, and one on the cheek? 

 a short tail, white underneath. He wants the usual lachrymal 

 sinus, like- the koodoo, the large lachrymal line of the buck's 



