SEA-COWS. 
99 
mare I valued beyond price for her many good 
qualities, but chiefly for her attachment to me, and 
her wonderful powers of endurance. She carried 
me seventy-five miles in one day with the saddle 
only once off her back, without showing the slightest 
symptom of fatigue! 
May lith .—After making various exchanges, such 
as beads for canvas, powder for cooking utensils, &c., 
Lewis and myself parted company, intending to 
meet again in about a month. I tried to find a 
practicable road to the Umgowie Mountains, as, 
since the loss of all my horses, my only chance 
of game was among the mountains and bush. I 
could find no road, so I followed Lewis’s track. 
In the course of the day I unaccountably lost my 
dog Fly: I think he must have been bitten by a 
snake ; I had killed a mamba, nine feet long, the day 
before. 
Hearing from the Kaffirs that there were sea-cows 
in the Umlilas, I outspanned, and waited till the sun 
was getting low, and went in pursuit. How my heart 
beat at hearing the well-known blow just round a bend 
of the river, and, cautiously peering round, saw three, 
making up the stream! They were very shy, and 
showed poor heads. I took a round, and got above 
them unperceived, and made an excellent shot at a 
very large bull; he only just showed his eye above 
the water at about fifty yards, and I put a bullet 
from Burrow (my Ho. 7) in the very centre. I was 
loth to fire at so poor a chance, but the river being 
