A Hunter's Life Among Lions, Elephants and Other Wild Animals of South AfricaDerby & Jackson, 1860 - Hunting |
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A Hunter's Life Among Lions, Elephants and Other Wild Animals of South Africa Roualeyn Gordon-Cumming No preview available - 2020 |
Common terms and phrases
after-riders antelope assagais Bakalahari Bakatla ball Bamangwato bank Bechuanas beheld black rhinoceros black wildebeest blesbok blue wildebeests Boers breakfast buck buffalo bull elephants bullet bushes camp cattle chase Colesberg course cover crossed dawn dense distance dogs eland encamped extremely feet fell fire flesh forest fresh spoor galloped gemsbok Grahamstown grass Griquas ground halted hartebeests head heard held hills hippopotami horns horses Hottentots hour hundred yards hunting hyænas inspanned karosses killed Kleinboy koodoos kraal Kuruman length Limpopo lion lioness lying Mahura miles morning mountain natives night obtained old bull once oryx outspanned oxen pallah phants plain proceeded reached reeds resolved rhinoceros riding rifle river rocky rode Ruyter sable antelope saddle sea-cows shoot shot shoulder Sicomy side soon springboks steeds stood sundown thorns took trees trekked tribe troop tusks Vaal River vley wagons wait-a-bit wild wind wounded
Popular passages
Page 18 - He only acknowledged the shots by a salaam-like movement of his trunk, with the point of which he gently touched the wounds with a striking and peculiar action.
Page 232 - ... in the creation ; and when a herd of them is seen scattered through a grove of the picturesque parasoltopped acacias which adorn their native plains, and on whose uppermost shoots they are enabled to browse by the colossal height with which nature has so admirably endowed them, he must indeed be slow of conception who fails to discover both grace and dignity in all their movements.
Page 284 - ... somersault in the mud, his feet slipping from under him: thus the Bushman escaped certain destruction. The buffalo rose much discomfited, and, the wounded horse first catching his eye, he went a second time after him, but he got out of the way. At this moment I managed to send one of my patent pacificating pills into his shoulder, when he instantly quitted the field of action, and sought shelter in the dense cover on the mountain side, whither I deemed it- imprudent to follow him.
Page 115 - ... scene which was passing before me, and had some difficulty in convincing myself that it was reality which I beheld, and not the wild and exaggerated picture of a hunter's dream. During this time their vast legions continued streaming through the neck in the hills in one unbroken compact phalanx. At length I saddled up, and rode into the middle of them with my rifle and after-riders, and fired into the ranks until fourteen had fallen, when I cried
Page 219 - Both varieties of the black rhinoceros are much smaller and more active than the white, and are so swift that a horse with a rider on its back can rarely overtake them. The two varieties of the white rhinoceros are so similar in habits, that the description of one will serve for both...
Page 271 - I felt certain that she would have either me or my horse. I, however, determined not to relinquish my steed, but to hold on by the bridle. My men, who of course kept at a safe distance, stood aghast with their mouths open, and for a few seconds my position was certainly not an enviable one. Fortunately, however, the dogs took off...
Page 220 - Long streaks of foam now streamed from his mouth, and a profuse perspiration had changed his sleek gray coat to an ashy blue. Tears trickled from his large dark eye, and it was plain that the eland's hours were numbered. Pitching my rifle to my shoulder, I let fly at the gallop, and mortally wounded him behind ; then spurring my horse, I shot past him on his right side, and discharged my other barrel behind his shoulder, when the eland staggered for a moment and subsided in the dust.* The two Baquaines...
Page 234 - I felt on this occasion were different from anything that I had before experienced during a long sporting career. My senses were so absorbed by the wondrous and beautiful sight before me that I rode along like one entranced, and felt inclined to disbelieve that I was hunting living things of this world.
Page 260 - ... extensive groves of wide-spreading mimosas. Up the middle of this vley stalked a troop of ten colossal giraffes, flanked by two large herds of blue wildebeests and zebras, with an advanced guard of pallahs. They were all coming to the fountain to drink, and would be within rifle-shot of the wagons before I could finish my breakfast. I, however, continued to swallow my food with the utmost expedition, having directed my men to catch and saddle Colesberg.
Page 269 - She got it hard and sharp, just where I aimed, but it did not seem to affect her much. Uttering a loud cry, she wheeled about, when I gave her the second ball close behind the shoulder. All the elephants uttered a strange rumbling noise, and made off in a line to the northward at a brisk ambling pace, their huge, fan-like ears flapping in the ratio of their speed. I did not wait to load, but ran back to the hillock to obtain a view. On gaining its summit, the guides pointed out the elephants: they...