up to the buck; he rose, and afforded
me a fair shot at twenty yards. I gave him a dose of buckshot near the
shoulder, which knocked him over. He jumped up again instantly, and
went away on three legs. Not having my dog with me, I ran back to my
pony, and mounting him, galloped to the hill over which the buck had
disappeared. I looked all round, but could discover no signs whatever
of the reitbok. I held up my hand, in order to find which way the
little wind that there was happened to be blowing, and, riding with my
head to the wind, went nearly a mile without seeing a sign of the buck.
I was about making a fresh cast, when I noticed a few reeds on ahead; I
went towards them, and, upon getting within one hundred yards, saw my
wounded buck jump up and gallop off. With his three legs he could beat
my pony's four. So I pulled up, and tried a long shot at him. He got
it in the stern, stumbled, recovered, and held on. I loaded, and kept
him in sight, thinking he would certainly drop. But no such luck; he
staggered along, and was getting away from me, when I saw that he was
going down a steep hill at a pace as though he had his legs sound. At
the bottom of this hill there was a large watercourse, about twenty feet
wide and ten deep. He could not stop himself when he saw this in front,
owing to having but one front leg sound, but tried to leap it. This he
failed in doing by a long way, and dropped with a crash to the bottom of
the ravine. My pony had been much interested in the chase, and was
nearly following suit by rushing into this watercourse. As I was going
at speed down the hill, and had my gun in my right hand, I could with
difficulty pull him up with my left. I jumped off, and ran to the edge
of the ravine, where I saw the reitbok trying vainly to leap up the
steep bank. I gave him a third shot, which dropped him dead. It was
astonishing to see with what wounds he had held on; the dose of buckshot
had made his shoulder look as though it suffered from a severe attack of
smallpox; and the second bullet had gone half through him,--a raking
shot. Some Kaffirs who were passing soon after conveyed him home for
me; and he proved to be, by scale, one of the heaviest bucks that had
been shot near Pietermaritzburg for some time. Upon telling this to a
facetious friend who came to look at the trophy, he said that it was no
wonder, considering the quantity of lead that was in him.

I had several very pretty cour