WILD CATTLE HUNTING. 65 



the river. They were drinking and splashing 

 up the water, but directly they caught sight 

 of us, not one second did they deliberate on 

 their mode of proceeding, but dashed with 

 one accord into the covert, making a crash 

 very like what the traveller may constantly 

 hear around him on every side when the first 

 furious north winds succeed the annual fires, 

 and first heavy rains, and the falling of huge 

 trees in every direction makes the forest 

 rather unsafe. 



Away they went ; and away we went 

 after them, along a trail as broad as the 

 wake of a steamboat, but very inconvenient 

 for the heads and shoulders of the riders, as 

 the cattle scarcely clear the way above the 

 saddle, and always run with their heads 

 low. 



I made a resolution, that if I got home I 

 would not hunt again in a blue cloth jacket, 

 for mine was torn to rags before the first 

 half mile. The great object now was to turn 

 the herd, as there was no savannah or open 

 ground for many miles in the direction it had 

 taken, and the forest spread to the foot of the 

 mountains, which are one mass of large stones 

 with high sacate grass growing between them. 

 A clever lad, mounted on the cleverest and 



F 



