144 
AFRICAN HUNTING. 
road worth mentioning, except that we stuck fast 
once yesterday and had to unload, and that Donker, 
my best ox, is dead, having got at a poisonous kind of 
grass, called by the Dutch tulp, which has much the 
same effect upon them as a tremendous blow-out of 
clover, causing them to swell fearfully : this was the 
only casualty, but it was nearly being the same with 
several others.. 
We have been living well on koran, guinea fowl, 
wild ducks, springbuck, and blesbuck. I made an ex¬ 
change with old Luse, a Boer—tea, powder and lead, 
for bacon and sausages; and had two glasses of grog 
with him, as it was a bitter cold day; and lost two 
oxen, Quiman and Boman, for two days: they had 
taken the road home again. 
I had a tremendous fall from Jack yesterday, while 
hunting blesbuck, right into a new burn. I got up as 
black* as a nigger, but my horse was not in fault, as 
he is blind, and I was pushing him to his utmost 
speed, when he set his foot in a hole and rolled for 
yards—by no means an uncommon occurrence. I 
have had very many such spills ; and on two occasions 
found my double rifle with the muzzle facing me, and 
both barrels at full cock. While going at full speed, 
luck is all you have to trust to, clever though your 
horse may be ; an old shooting-horse is always on the 
look-out for holes, having himself a wholesome dread 
of them. There is frequently such a cloud of dust 
raised by the immense herds of game you are 
pursuing that you can see nothing, and, though you 
