SPRINGBOK 
21 
with. An unique character of the game here is the herding of 
different kinds of antelope together, feeding as if they belonged 
to one troop. 
Early in the morning, marching alone through the bush 
ahead of the cart, suddenly I came upon the open borders of 
the lake, and was delighted to see a troop of springbok curiously 
eyeing me at a distance of four hundred yards. The grass here 
was too short to offer any opportunity of stalking; so, tying 
my red silk handkerchief to the ramrod, which I drew from the 
gun for this purpose, I struck it into the ground flag-wise, and 
retreated some fifty yards, where I lay down to await events. 
Actuated by curiosity, the buck advanced and came to within 
two hundred yards, where they frisked about in apparent trepi¬ 
dation at the unusual object before them. A large ram, bolder 
than the rest, walked with his nose in the air some fifty yards 
nearer; but as the wind was in the right quarter, he could get 
no scent of me. He stood for some time, then, turning round to 
rejoin his mates, gave me the chance at his shoulder I had been 
waiting for. To my great joy, as we were short of meat, the 
shot was successful. The rest of the herd galloped off into the 
plain with their peculiar bucking leaps, erecting the white mane 
hair, usually prone on their backs, now glistening like silver in 
the early morning sunlight. 
Shortly after the cart came up, and we camped a little 
further on at a fountain of fresh water, rising like a ‘ glimpse 
of fairyland’ under some palm-trees. After breakfast I went 
to get another shot at the troop, still in sight in the distance, 
and by a lucky stalk on hands and knees, got within two 
hundred yards unobserved. Waiting till two buck were abreast 
of each other, I fired, dropping both in their tracks, to my no 
small satisfaction, as there were six of us to feed. Hammar, 
who was watching proceedings through a telescope, was very 
much surprised when he saw both the Kaffir and myself each 
carrying something back, one behind the other, and concluded 
that we were jointly carrying home some elongated beast like a 
serpent, for it never occurred to him that there was more than 
