34 
SPORT AND WAR, 
CHAP. VI. 
nag put its head down to drink the slight propel¬ 
ling power from the bridle was quite sufficient to send 
the old fellow over its head into the water ; and then, 
as he could not stand, he had nothing to do but to 
strike out and endeavour to swim. It was the most 
ludicrous sight I have ever seen. 
The men had to support or partly carry him back 
to the post; and when we got him into his bedroom and 
undressed him the room became saturated with blood 
and bloody water from inside his boots, and from his 
clothes. The fact is the water where he fell was so 
shallow in parts that he had fallen upon the point of 
a sharp stone, which cut an artery in the groin, and it 
was spirting, and bleeding at a great rate. There was 
no docter at the post, but I had heard of cobwebs, and 
the inside of the huts was literally covered with them. 
I made the men collect quantities, which we piled on, 
and by using pressure partly stopped the bleeding, 
whilst I sent off an express to King William’s Town 
for a doctor, and in about two hours old Tim Grraham 
arrived and took up the artery. He was just in 
time, for the old soldier had fainted, and was only 
restored to consciousness by a little of the stimulant 
that had caused the fall—on the principle, I suppose, 
of 4 a hair of the dog that bit him.’ 
This terminates the story of the hairy Highlanders, 
but I cannot resist in continuation telling three or 
