d for my bearings, and slowly returned
homewards.

To the inexperienced in this sort of travelling the road would not have
been easy. The hills bear a wonderful resemblance to one another, and
during the excitement of a gallop of this description, there is little
time to take observations as to the course one is pursuing; a sort of
instinct seems to supply the place of reason; it would be difficult to
tell any one why or how we know that such a direction is the right one--
we _feel_ that it is so, but can give no reason why. I am confident
that this is the feeling that animals have when they find their way for
miles to their homes by roads on which they have never before travelled.
There is a well-authenticated instance of a dog having been taken from
the south of England to Scotland by sea, and returning alone by land.

On another day I went out hartebeest-hunting, and soon found a troop of
these creatures quietly feeding on a level plain that extended some
miles around. They were some distance from me, and my horse, not having
had any good forage for four days, had lost his condition, and was not
fit for a gallop after these fleet animals. There was not a stone or
ant-hill near enough to get a shot from, and the grass being very short,
stalking was out of the question. I left my horse, and slid along to
within six hundred yards of the herd without attracting their attention,
and lay down in a small patch of long grass to watch proceedings. A
knowing old bull-hartebeest, however, was on the look-out, and kept
moving from side to side with a careful and suspicious air. I saw that
I could get no nearer, and yet did not like to try my shot from such a
distance. I had often heard of the curiosity of the antelopes, and that
they might be decoyed by this weakness of character. So lying down well
out of sight, I took a red silk pocket-handkerchief, and, tying it to my
gun, waved it slowly above the grass. The hartebeest saw it
immediately, and all left off feeding; they moved about very
suspiciously, keeping a good lookout at the strange object. I kept
waving the flag most industriously, and soon saw that they were coming
up towards it; but when about two hundred yards distant, they again
stopped, and eyed my signal. Hoping that they would come nearer, I did
not fire, and saw them walk knowingly round to leeward to try and get my
wind. This would have ruined all, so, lowering the flag, I fired at the
ancient bul