Ellipsyprimna). There were several in the herd,
hut there was a buck with a fine head a few yards
in advance; they were standing upon an undulation
on open ground backed by high grass. I had
marked a small bush as my point of cover, and,
creeping unobserved towards this, T arrived unseen
within about a hundred and twenty yards of the
buck. With the Fletcher 24 I made a good
shoulder-shot; the buck gave a few bounds and fell
dead; the does looked on in astonishment, and I
made an equally lucky shot with the left-hand
barrel, bringing down what I at first had mistaken
to be a doe, but I discovered it to be a young
buck.
The Mdhedehet is an antelope of great beauty ;
it resembles the red deer in colour, but the coat is
still rougher; it stands about thirteen hands in
height, with a pair of long slightly-curved annulated
horns. The live weight of the male would be about
five hundred pounds; the female, like the nellut
(Tragelaphus Strepsiceros), is devoid of horns, and
much resembles the female of the Sambur deer of
India. This antelope is the “ water-buck ” of South
Africa.
On arrival at the camp, I resolved to fire the
entire country on the following day, and to push
still farther up the course of the Settite to the foot
of the mountains, and to return to this camp in
about a fortnight, by which time the animals that
had been scared away by the fire would have
returned. Accordingly, on the following morning,
accompanied by a few of the aggageers, I started
upon the south bank of the river, and rode for
some distance into the interior, to the ground that
was entirely covered with high withered grass. We
were passing through a mass of kittar thorn-bush,
almost hidden by the immensely high grass, when,
as I was ahead of the party, I came suddenly upon
the tracks of rhinoceros; these were so unmistake-
ably recent that I felt sure we were not far from
the animals themselves. As I had wished to fire
the grass, I was accompanied by my Tokrooris, and
my horse-keeper, Mahomet No. 2. It was difficult
ground for the men, and still more unfavourable for
the horses, as large disjointed masses of stone were
concealed in the high grass.
We were just speculating as to the position of
the rhinoceros, and thinking how uncommonly unpleasant
it would be should he obtain our wind,
when whiff! whiff! whiff! We heard the sharp
whistling snort, with a tremendous rush through the
high grass and thorns close to u s; and at the same
moment two of these determined brutes were upon
us in full charge. I never saw such a scrimmage;
sauve qui p eu t! There was no time for more than
one look behind. I dug the spurs into Aggahr’s
flanks, and clasping him round the neck, I ducked
my head down to his shoulder, well protected with
my strong hunting cap, and I kept the spurs going
as hard as I could ply them, blindly trusting to
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