nly just leave the least mark on
the bullet: this gives about one-eighth tin as the right mixture.

My two Kaffirs returning with me one day to the Umganie Drift, we found
the tide up, and the water consequently too deep to get across: it was
about five feet in the deepest part. _This_ would not have prevented us
from wading, as there was not much current running, and no sea on; but
as great numbers of hungry sharks were on one side, and alligators on
the other, we did not like to venture, the breadth being nearly two
hundred yards. The alligator is a very unpleasant customer if you are
in the water. An accident happened at the Drift, about two miles from
the mouth of the Umganie, to an Englishman, a very worthy settler. He
lived in a little cottage across the river, and was returning one
evening with a supply of fresh meat, which he carried with his clothes
over his head: the water was about breast-high. Suddenly, when about
the middle of the river, he was seized round the waist by the jaws of an
alligator. He dropped his meat, and caught hold of the animal's head,
calling at the same time to a Kaffir who was near. It was either the
shout or the seizing that frightened the creature, for it let go its
hold, and the poor man reached the opposite side of the river, where he
fainted. The wounds he had received were very severe; he was three
months before he could move about, and never again seemed the same man
that he was before this mangling. I often saw an old Kaffir, near the
Umganie, who had nearly the whole fleshy part of the thigh torn off by
an alligator as he was one day crossing the river. My days and evenings
of patient watching were not rewarded by a shot at this rapacious brute.

The alligator often devours its prey as it comes to drink. Slowly
approaching some unsuspecting animal, it seizes it by the nose, and
drags it under water; the weight of the alligator prevents the animal
from raising its head; it is in consequence soon suffocated, and is
dragged to a convenient retired place until required, or sufficiently
high to suit the Epicurean taste of this scaly monster.

Besides the animals that I have already particularly mentioned, very
good sport could be had with wild fowl of different kinds,--partridges,
guinea-fowl, pheasants, and bustard. The large description of the
latter, called by the colonists the _pouw_, is a magnificent bird, and
is considered a great delicacy for the table. They hav