bullet was rammed home, I ran down the
ladder. Before I had reached the bottom, I saw that I had forgotten to
bring either powder-horn or pouch. I was in too hot a haste to go back
for them, for I saw the last of the wildebeests moving off, and I
fancied I might be too late. But I had no intention of going any great
distance in pursuit. A single shot at them was all I wanted, and that
in the gun would do.

"I hastened after the game, keeping as well as I could under cover. I
found, after a little time, that I need not have been so cautious. The
wildebeests, instead of being shy--as I had seen them in our old
neighbourhood--appeared to have very little fear of me. This was
especially the case with the old bulls, who capered and careered about
within an hundred yards' distance, and sometimes permitted me to
approach even nearer. It was plain they had never been hunted.

"Once or twice I was within range of a pair of old bulls, who seemed to
act as a rearguard. But I did not want to shoot one of them. I knew
their flesh would turn out tough. I wished to get something more
tender. I wished to send a bullet into a heifer, or one of the young
bulls whose horns had not yet begun to curve. Of these I saw several in
the herd.

"Tame as the animals were, I could not manage to get near enough to any
of these. The old bulls at the head always led them beyond my range;
and the two, that brought up the rear, seemed to drive them forward as I
advanced upon them.

"Well, in this way they beguiled me along for more than a mile; and the
excitement of the chase made me quite forget how wrong it was of me to
go so far from the camp. But thinking about the meat, and still hopeful
of getting a shot, I kept on.

"At length the hunt led me into ground where there was no longer any
bush; but there was good cover, notwithstanding, in the ant-hills, that,
like great tents, stood at equal distances from each other scattered
over the plain. These were very large--some of them more than twelve
feet high--and differing from the dome-shaped kind so common everywhere.
They were of the shape of large cones, or rounded pyramids, with a
number of smaller cones rising around their bases, and clustering like
turrets along their sides. I knew they were the hills of a species of
white ant called by entomologists _Termes bellicosus_.

"There were other hills, of cylinder shape and rounded tops, that stood
only about a yard high; lookin