GAZELLE SHOOTING 
67 
Soon after leaving Sassabanah we crossed the river Farfan 
and wended our way westward, passing miles of camels 
which had come to the wells for their monthly drink. 
(N.B. — Camels which do no work, and have good green 
grass to feed upon, are watered once a month only.) 
Several of my men were now laid up with acute stomach- 
ache from drinking this bitter water. 
After turning round a small rocky hill, w^e crossed a large 
plain thinly covered with bush. Here we found several 
herds of ‘ owl,’ which, however, were very wild, and after 
two unsuccessful stalks we found a single beast, which 
allowed me to empty both barrels at him, reload and fire 
another, before he bounded off, when I fired the fourth shot 
at him galloping and struck him in the shoulder, bowling 
him literally head over heels, stone-dead like a rabbit. On 
running hard up to him, I put my foot in a hole and came 
heavily to the ground, choking up both barrels of my rifle 
with sand, cutting my right thumb, and severely spraining 
my left thumb. When I reached the antelope, which was 
a good 170 yards off, there was more blood apparent on me 
than on him. After another unsuccessful stalk, we slowly 
walked up to a large herd, and as we wanted meat badly and 
could not get any nearer than 250 yards, I sat down slowly 
and took aim at the nearest buck. I struck him in what my 
shikari always termed the ^ billy,’ and off he went with his 
head hung low, followed quickly by me, my shikari roaring 
after me that he was not touched. I shouted to my syce, 
who galloped up, and, soon outstriding the antelope, brought 
him back to me after a fine chase. Hiding behind a bush, 
I fired at him when within about 15 yard^ of me, missing 
him clean. I broke his hind-leg with the second barrel, 
when he made off at an astounding pace, and when he 
joined another large herd of antelopes I quite gave him up 
for lost. But so good were my syce’s eyes that he followed 
that beast till he had separated it from the herd and 
brought it to bay, when he dismounted and shouted, having 
forgotten, as usual, to take out my revolver. We arrived 
5—2 
