Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/232

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184
Seven Years in South Africa.

shaw and I started off in pursuit of them, and were induced to go a very considerable way from our party; we were obliged to give up the chase as unsuccessful, and were making our way back, when scarcely thirty yards in front of us, a pair of orbekis sprang up. Oppenshaw fired at one of them as it was turning to look at us, and broke its fore leg just above the ankle; it bounded away on three legs; we fired again, but missed; the gazelle continued its flight, and seemed likely to escape altogether, when a third shot from me caught it on its side and brought it down. It died just as we got up to it, and as we had no servants in attendance, we had to carry it in turns for two hours under a burning sun, till we came to the spot where our companions were camping in the wood.

In the course of the afternoon we went six miles farther, making altogether an advance of thirteen miles in the day. Beyond the Gashuma Flat and a sandy forest, we crossed four shallow valleys, and made our camp for the night in a fifth, that in point of size was more important than the others; all the spruits except the last two were dry and overgrown with grass, the whole of them becoming deeper towards the south-east, the direction which they took to join the Panda ma Tenka. As we crossed the third of these valleys we saw a herd of giraffes, about 600 yards away.

Between the Gashuma Flat and the place where we encamped we came across the following sorts of game, or their traces:—Orbekis, rietbocks, steinbocks, waterbocks, zulu-hartebeests, koodoos, giraffes, buffaloes, elephants, and zebras.

The little river beside which we were staying was