106 
Abandoning his concealment, the successful stalker is presently by the side of the humbled quarry, where being rejoined 
hy his. sable accomplice, they hastily drag over the cerulean carcase a strong ubattis of thorns, and silently follow the sinuosi- 
ties of the glen in exactly the same order as before. Along the bottom of the deep chasm winds the broad bed of the river, 
here and there encumbered by huge blocks of granite that have been launched from the cliff, and worn smooth as a marble 
pavement by the sweep of the torrent floods. The buttresses above, to which these masses once pertained, decayed by the gnawing 
tooth of time have assumed unto themselves, like temples of the Genii, the most grotesque and fantastical shapes of pillars, 
obelisks, and columns, converging gradually until the walled defile is not more than sufficiently wide to admit of the passage of 
the periodical torrent. Ramparts of naked rock rising abruptly to the height of many hundred feet, are embattled with 
castellated turrets, and garrisoned by troops of clamorous baboons, At every turn the outline of the hills varying, present new 
points of the wildest and most picturesque scenery, At one moment is unfolded an abyss of black rocks, all shaggy with 
jungle, which is so seathed by the flames of some recent colflagration, as to render the dell it occupies a fit residence only 
for infernal demons; and at the very next step, perhaps, is revealed through an opening in the hills, a glimpse of wild sylvan 
beauty almost Elysian, Nor is the whole effect of the landscape a little heightened by the uniformly exotic appearance of the 
vegetation, A vast variety of aloes, crested with superb tiaras of orange or blood-red, clustering along the summits and in the 
fissures of the weather-stained rocks, overshadow beds of superb geraniums, whose flowers might well excite envy in the green- 
house. The lofty candelabra-shaped euphorbia towers by the side of the gorgeous corallodendron, the latter clothed in one 
dazzling profusion of the brightest scarlet blossoms. As a contrast to their gaudy brilliancy, the scented gueurboom next 
" Spreads in beauty’s softest blooms 
Her purple glories. through the glooms ;’" 
while the snake-like creepers of the monkey's ladder, coiling around the rough trunks of the elegantly shaped. mimosas, stretch 
their lank arms from tree to tree among the golden blossoms like the cordage of a ship, and fling into the air a wild web 
of tangled vegetation. 
A sequestered dell, broken up into rocky nooks half choked with dwarf timber and copsewood, now discloses to the 
hunter at intervals, grey moss-grown stones partially concealed by the trailing ivy geranium, and backed by cliffs of the deepest 
red. Here a solitary bull Koodoo is lazily reclining in his woodland palace, among bluebells growing at the head of a babbling 
spring, which, gently issuing from a cavity of the rock, trickles onward beneath an overhanging bower of the speckboom. His 
quick ears having already detected the rustling of a leaf, he has sprang nimbly upon his feet, and as the first bullet spins harm- 
lessly over his striped back, and flattens against the rocks behind, he flings up his wild head in derision. Now unharboured, 
“Like deer, that, rousing from their lair, 
Just shake the dewdrops from their hair, 
And toss their armed crests aloft,” 
he shakes his azure flanks, which are but indistinctly visible through the gloom of the thicket, and throwing back his twisted 
horns, dashes headlong through the flowery copse as it bends under his burly weight. Mounting the naked side of that steep 
bank by a narrow ledge, impracticable to any animal less surefooted than himself, he exhibits his proud form for one instant 
only on its verge, and that instant has proved sufficient to place the seal upon his doom. Unhappy fellow! but for this mis- 
take thou hadst escaped scatheless —the second ball has pierced thy laced side! Stang by the wound he rushes forward with 
meteor-like velocity, but has not fled five hundred yards ere he is fain to pause for breath beneath a friendly knoll; when the 
nature of the hurt having been ascertained through a telescope by the anxious sportsman, he hastily reloads, advancing at the 
saine time with as much celerity and caution as the nature of the ground will admit. Arriving breathless and streaming with 
perspiration, within long rifle range of the spot, he betakes himself to his knees and hands, but in spite of this quadrumanous 
‘progress, the bleeding quarry is again off at score before a shot can be obtained. Thrice is he thus lost, but thrice redeemed 
by a view of his all-glorious horns, which are protruding above the coppice, his slot having each time been long and patiently 
traced through strips of fire-disfigured forest, wherein he has vainly sought to conceal his noble figure. The open face both 
of hill and valley having here been charred by a still unextinguished conflagration, either kindled by design or accident, his 
track from one scrub to another is easily carried over the bare soil. Four bullets have struck him; and although not in the 
right place, he has gradually waxed fainter from loss of blood. Again the pursner is at fault, and on the very yerge of 
an impenetrable forest, is casting earnestly about for the trail, when a violent floundering draws his attention to the ravine 
below — the exhausted animal in striving to descend has slidden from the bank, and ere he can recover his balance, receiving 
the coup de grace, lies weltering in a flood of purple gore. 
Laden with the choicest spolia, the weary, but well-requited hunter, has already been some hours at his wild camp, when 
night, casting her murky shroud over the face of the landscape, gradually reveals a scene which for solemnity or magnificence 
could hardly be exceeded. The flames which during the stillness of day had made but slow and partial progress over the 
theatre of his morning ramble, have now by a strong wind been driven into one general conflagration, which is leaping wildly 
over the country in tumultuous billows, and leaving all behind it scorched and desolate. Ten million burning flakes whirling off 
like a host of meteors through the pitchy sky, the whole mountain side has presently become enveloped in a sheet of living 
fire—dense volumes of smoke which roll upwards and hover over its summit imparting the appearance of a burning volcano. 
Now fanned by a fitful current, the forked red flames flare with a surly roar through the vapour as it rolls off the blackened 
