United States or Guinea-Bissau ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"The quagga is very indifferent food, but the striped quagga is very passable; so if you intend to save any for our dinner, pray let it be some of the latter. Have you done hunting to-day?" "Yes," replied the Major, "if Wilmot is of my opinion, I think we had better not work our horses any more just now; the plain is so full of large holes, ant-eaters' holes, Bremen says they are."
The hunters knew they would return on the morrow about the same hour; and it was towards their return that the thought of all were bent. Hendrik advised "creasing," which means sending a bullet through the upper part of the neck near the withers, and by this means a quagga can be knocked over and captured. The shot, if properly directed, does not kill the animal.
Such a sharp biter would be no pleasant horse to "bit and bridle." But all knew the antipathy that exists between the wild horse and the hyena; and that the quagga, though roused to fury at the sight of one of these animals, is very different in its behaviour towards man.
Hendrik then endeavoured to turn the quagga to one side, and for this purpose wrenched his right rein; but with such fierceness, that the old bit-ring gave way the bit slipped through the animal's jaws the head-stall came off with the jerk and the quagga was completely unbridled! Of course the animal was now free to go just as he liked; and it was plain that he liked to go with his old comrades.
He remembered that in taming this same quagga and breaking him to the saddle, he had been vastly aided by a very simple contrivance that was a "blind." The blind was nothing more than a piece of soft leather tied over the animal's eyes; but so complete had been its effect, that it had transformed the quagga at once from a kicking screaming creature into a docile animal.
The leading rhinoceros had singled it out as the object of attack; and, before Harry and I could fire, rushing furiously forward, it pierced the poor animal through with its formidable horns, pinning it to the earth. When too late to save the quagga, we both pulled our triggers, when the animal, still dragging the body of its victim on, rushed forward several paces before it dropped.
In a few minutes more the quagga was close upon his heels; and then the huge antelope, seeing that farther running could not serve him, halted in despair, and faced round towards his pursuer. Now Hendrik had his loaded rifle in his hand, and you expect to hear that he instantly raised it to his shoulder, took aim, fired, and brought down the eland.
It was evidently making for a larger tract of bush that grew near; but before it had got half-way across the open ground, the quagga came up behind, and uttering his shrill "couaag," reared forward, and dropped with his fore-hoofs upon the hyena's back. At the same instant the neck of the carnivorous animal was clutched by the teeth of the ruminant and held as fast, as if grasped by a vice.
There was the round solid hoof of the quagga, and his near congener the dauw; and there was the neat hoofprint of the gemsbok, and the larger track of the eland; and among these Von Bloom did not fail to notice the spoor of the dreaded lion. Although they had not heard his roaring that night, they had no doubt that there were plenty of his kind in that part of the country.
The facts of this case were communicated in a letter from the Earl of Morton to the President of the Royal Society in 1821, and were as follows: In the year 1816 Lord Morton put a male quagga to a young chestnut mare of 7/8 Arabian blood, which had never before been bred from. The result was a female hybrid which resembled both parents.
Word Of The Day