DELICIOUS DUCKS. 
145 
can often hear the bullet clap loudly, you must wait 
till the dust clears away to know what it is—quagga, 
wildebeest, blesbuck, or springbuck. I have fre¬ 
quently had herds of all these sorts in immense 
numbers scouring away before me and on all sides, 
amid such a cloud of stuff raised by their own 
tearing away that I never knew what I was firing at, 
my only endeavour being to aim low. I first saw the 
effects of my two barrels on the dust clearing away ; 
sometimes a couple of quaggas, and on one occasion 
three blesbuck, and several times three springbuck, not 
unfrequently a wildebeest; but most commonly nothing 
on the spot, though it is very usual for one or more to 
fall farther on or drop to the rear, being wounded. 
At these times good dogs are of immense service. 
I must mention my success at ducks yesterday, as 
it may never occur again. I marked six into a small 
water-hole and stalked well in upon them in the long 
grass, bagged four with the first barrel and dropped 
another with the second the instant he rose, and had 
but just time to load one barrel when the sixth flew 
round again, and I dropped him, thus bagging the 
whole lot in less than half a minute. They are 
large, fat, and delicious, and equal in flavour to any 
in England. Several hyenas have been following the 
wagon and frightening the Kaffirs, but the lions have 
not molested us; they only came to the wagon once, 
frightening old Graham, one of the horses, almost into 
fits. He got his back to the wheel, and snorted and 
blew as if he was choking. I had had them all well 
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