BUFFALO. 
139 
left her, as all South African trained shooting-horses 
do for half a day or more, if required), and proceeded 
in the direction my old friend was making, not 
much expecting, however, to see anything more of 
him, and had given him up, as it was fast getting 
dark, when 1 saw the outline of a large beast under 
a shady thorn-tree, and had not quite made him out 
when he emerged and made at me. I threw a hasty 
glance around for a friendly tree, and then at the 
chances of getting on the mare’s back, but that was 
hopeless, as she was loaded with hides ; my arm was 
through the bridle rein, the bull mending his pace, 
and as I put my gun to my shoulder the mare, alarmed, 
jerked back and I fired a snap shot at his breast, not 
turning him in the least. The mare reared per¬ 
pendicularly and fell backwards ; the rein being 
through my arm, I also fell between her legs, and the 
brute went over us both, knocking the skin from the 
mare’s eye with a kick from his hind leg, and rattled 
along. I found him dead in the morning not 200 
yards off, my bullet having struck him in the centre 
of the chest. 
I saw across the Pongola an immense herd of 
buffaloes, and my fellows were most anxious that I 
should shoot them a fat cow. I got on a large open 
plain between them and their stronghold, the bush 
we were then in, and ensconced myself behind a very 
small low bush below the wind, with two double 
guns, and sent my fellows a long way round, above 
wind, to drive them towards me. There must have 
