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The hunter had arrived within a few yards of the top, when a loud trampling noise sounded in his ears, as if a band of heavy-footed animals were coming up the gorge. He spurred his quagga forward, in order to reach the edge, and get a view down the ravine. Before he was able to do so, he was surprised to see the eland gallop up again, and try to pass him upon the plain.
The quagga still held his struggling victim with firm hold trampling it with his hoofs, and shaking it in his strong jaws, until in a few minutes the screams of the hyena ceased, and his mangled carcass lay motionless upon the plain! One would think that this incident might have been enough to warn our hunters to be cautious in their dealings with the quagga.
No wonder they showed their heels in the best style they knew how; and so well did they show them, that Hendrik's quagga notwithstanding his keen desire to get forward among them, and explain away the awkward business upon his back was not able to come an inch closer. He did not lose ground, however.
More especially was this the case in the level wooded area extending from the inland slope of the Lebomba Range to Ship Mountain. Blue wildebeeste and quagga were so plentiful that we seldom wasted ammunition on them. Buffalo abounded, sometimes in very large herds. Waterbuck were always to be found near the rivers. Elephants existed, but were very wild and usually were scarce.
Crawford will be here long before the Zulus can cross the river, even if he doesn't mount his horse and let the young quagga go. Don't alarm our mother, that's all. I say, Maud," he added, as his sister was hastening away, "before you do anything else, send Biddy here with the swivel guns. One at a time is as much as she can carry, and I have got a rope to hoist them up.
Blyth and others, occasionally appear: and I have been informed by Colonel Poole that the foals of this species are generally striped on the legs, and faintly on the shoulder. The quagga, though so plainly barred like a zebra over the body, is without bars on the legs; but Dr. Gray has figured one specimen with very distinct zebra-like bars on the hocks.
As the quaggas went off in the same direction which the eland had taken, of course Hendrik's road and theirs lay so far together; and on galloped he at their heels. He was curious to try the point much disputed in regard to horses how far a mounted quagga would be able to cope with an unmounted one.
He must fling himself to the ground, and let quagga and saddle go. He had formed this resolution, and was actually about to put it in practice. He was just considering how he might best escape an ugly fall looking for a soft spot when, all at once, a grand idea rushed into his mind.
There was no apparent interruption to its flight, and Hendrik was under the impression that his shot had missed. He was soon undeceived, however, by hearing the animal fall to the earth with a dull heavy sound, at the same time uttering a groan, which did not seem unfamiliar, and yet was not the cry of a quagga.
In similar situations to these has the "white zebra" been observed though only by the traveller Le Vaillant and hence the doubt about its existence as a distinct species. None of the kinds associate together, though each herds with other animals! The quagga keeps company with the gnoo, the "dauw" with the "brindled gnoo," while the tall ostrich stalks in the midst of the herds of both!
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