manner.

Hendrik did not think the idea of snaring a good one. They might get
one in that way--the foremost of the drove; but all the others, seeing
the leader caught, would gallop off and return no more to the vley; and
where would they set their snare for a second? It might be a long time
before they should find another watering-place of these animals; whereas
they might stalk and crease them upon the plains at any time.

Swartboy now put in his plan. It was the _pit-fall_. That was the way
by which Bushmen most generally caught large animals, and Swartboy
perfectly understood how to construct a pit for quaggas.

Hendrik saw objections to this, very similar to those he had urged
against the snare. The foremost of the quaggas might be caught, but the
others would not be fools enough to walk into the pit--after their
leader had fallen in and laid the trap open. They of course would
gallop off, and never come back that way again.

If it could be done at night, Hendrik admitted, the thing might be
different. In the darkness several might rush in before catching the
alarm. But no--the quaggas had always come to drink in day-time--one
only could be trapped, and then the others alarmed would keep away.

There would have been reason in what Hendrik said, but for a remarkable
fact which the field-cornet himself had observed when the quaggas came
to the lake to drink. It was, that the animals had invariably entered
the water at one point, and gone out at another. It was of course a
mere accident that they did so, and owing to the nature of the ground;
but such was the case, and Von Bloom had observed it on several
occasions. They were accustomed to enter by the gorge, already
described; and, after drinking, wade along the shallow edge for some
yards, and then pass out by another break in the bank.

The knowledge of this fact was of the utmost importance, and all saw
that at once. A pit-fall dug upon the path by which the animals entered
the lake, would no doubt operate as Hendrik said--one might be caught,
and all the rest frightened off. But a similar trap placed upon the
trail that led outward, would bring about a very different result. Once
the quaggas had finished drinking, and just at the moment they were
heading out of the water, the hunters could show themselves upon the
opposite side, set the troop in quick motion, and _gallop them into the
trap_. By this means not only one, but a whole pit-full migh