196 
SPORT AND WAR. 
CHAP. XXI. 
if they were coming right at you and then swerving 
to one side or the other. 
All this time we were working hack towards Bloom 
Fontein, as it was Sir George Grey’s intention to 
move on a stage on the journey the same afternoon. 
During the great slaughter of the day the circle of 
natives was closing in ; and the mass of game became so 
dressed together at last, that the Prince and Currie 
took to their hunting hog-spears and charged into the 
midst, driving home the £ Paget blades ’ into the in¬ 
furiated animals. It was at this point of the battue 
that Sir George Grey rode up and directed us to desist. 
He w 7 as a keen sportsman himself, and had been com¬ 
mitting great slaughter up to that moment. This great 
destruction of 600 head of large game was no wilful 
waste of God’s creatures ; some thousands of natives had 
been employed to drive the masses together, and they 
had brought 600 pack-oxen to carry away the carcasses 
for their winter supply of food. Their mode of pre¬ 
serving the meat is to cut it into thin strips, about the 
size of your finger and to hang it over bushes or on 
strings supported by sticks ; the sun and rarefied air up- 
country will dry it in a day or two; you can then pack 
it away in a dry place, and it will keep for months or 
even years, the meat retaining all its nutriment. 
We selected some of the choicest of the game to be 
carried back to our wagons, and many trophies of heads, 
