Should they take fright and be off, we found to gallop after them was
not much use, owing to the roughness of the veldt and the smallness of
the ponies. Occasionally we had to pursue a wounded animal, and one day
we had an exciting chase after a wildebeeste, the most difficult of all
bucks to kill, as their vitality, unless absolutely shot through the
heart, is marvellous. When we at last overtook and finished off the poor
creature, we had out-distanced all our "boys," and it became necessary
for my fellow-sportsman to ride off and look for them (as the meat had
to be cut up and carried into camp), and for me to remain behind to keep
the aas-vogels from devouring the carcass. These huge birds and useful
scavengers, repulsive as they are to look at, always appear from space
whenever a buck is dead, and five minutes suffices for a party of them
to be busily employed, while a quarter of an hour later nothing is left
but the bones. Therefore I was left alone with the dead wildebeeste and
with the circling aas-vogels for upwards of two hours, and I realized,
as I had never done before, the intense loneliness of the veldt, and
something of what the horror must be of being lost on it. Even residents
have to dread this danger.
At that season the veldt boasted of few flowers, but birds were
plentiful, especially the large ones I have mentioned as forming a
valuable addition to the daily menu, and flocks of guinea-fowl, which
run along the ground making a peculiar chuckling noise, rarely flying,
but very quick at disappearing in the long grass.
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