266 
SPOET AND WAE. 
CHAP. XXVII. 
one of the sons and myself started for the day’s shooting 
amongst the 6 wildebeasts,’ which were in thousands on 
the plains around us. 
My gun was a double-barrelled smooth-bore, carry¬ 
ing eight balls to the pound; and I had two pouches 
with no less than 110 balls round my body (eleven 
pounds weight of lead, besides powder, &c.). It was 
my first regular day’s sport after gnus, and I fired over 
fifty shots before bringing down a single wildebeast. 
This was partly owing to the exaggerated appearance of 
the animal. After this I began to calculate his size 
better, the speed he was going, and the distance from 
me, and before eleven o’clock in the day I had got rid 
of the remaining sixty bullets, but not without count¬ 
ing my eleven head of dead gnus, which was considered 
a fair day’s sport. My young friend had also killed 
his nine head, and the father had to send an ox-wagon 
to carry the game home, in order to cut up the flesh 
and make his winter supply of dried meat. 
Dreading my companions of the night before, I de¬ 
cided to go on in the afternoon and sleep in the 
c veldt,’ and the next day, with my after-rider and pack- 
horse, reached Buffels Vley, where I was most hospitably 
received by Mrs. de Wet. 
This Vley deserves a few words of notice. For¬ 
merly it was a marsh, covered with long reeds and 
rushes, the vegetation being so long and rank that 
