boundary of the run in, to light our cigar at a tent, when a gens d'armes, clapping his moustaches in our face, and his bayonet to our breast, with 66 on ne passe pas ici,"

a

"Call'd back reality, and broke the spell."

Of the Friday's running we have said nothing, not having witnessed it the sport, however, needs no more record than that which the Turf Register affords. To-day, the opening event, THE PAS DE CALAIS STAKES, produced a pretty fair race, but the nags bespoke the infancy of thorough blood in that department. These Stakes will, no doubt, go far towards its rapid improvement: it would be a plan well worthy the present enlightened government of France, to add a sum, equal to that given from the local racing funds, to all stakes run for by horses bred in particular departments, or in France generally, as the conditions of the race might be.

THE GOLD CUP brought three to the post, but the struggle lay between Beggarman, Charles Edwards, and Mr. Waggs, rode by Yorke, a boy from John Scott's stables. A more admirably contested race we never saw it beat the dead beat for the Derby "to immortal smash." Beggarman, the worst goer of the species, probably, on the surface of the earth, ran as game as a bull-dog, and was ridden by Charley in a style combining the elegance of his brother Harry with the pluck of his fraternal George. Waggs won the first heat, and would have won the third, had he not run out just on the post. "If his jock had kept the needles out of him he would have run straight: the Brummagems lost the battle," said a critic in our hearing. Now, thus it is, the short-sighted confound cause and effect. He was not spurred till he was collared-the race was lost without an effort were made the gaffs were resorted to as a forlorn hope, and they failed only where failure was certain without them. By the way, Waggs was a favourable importation to give the Gauls an idea of our thoroughbred stock; with substance to carry sixteen stone to hounds, or draw a brasseur's dray.

THE STEAM-PACKET STAKES brought together a field of five (one, however, turning a dorsal summerset at the start), and produced a capital race between the first and second, Cicero and Spider, respectively steered, in most workmanlike fashion, by Messrs. Gale and Mackenzie Grieve. Both enacted that trying role, the gentleman jock, like professors; the latter would have looked the thing more ship-shape had he applied the sickle to his upper lip.

All the races being heats, swelled the amount to eight, and afforded time enow for the various artistes of the tables d'hôte to extract the juices out from bouille. It was nine o'clock ere we unfolded napkin; but when we say that the name of our host was Thelusson, it will be guarantee to all, who are not themselves unknown, that the excellence of the repast yielded only to the quality of the society. The following Wednesday afforded another turf display, but we left as the pleasure-seekers were departing for the course, and have the details but on hearsay. Here, then, we take our leave of Boulogne Races, with the cordial wish, as the confident anticipation, that they may go on and

prosper.

214

LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS.

THE WILD SPORTS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA; being the Narrative of an Expedition from the Cape of Good Hope, through the Territories of the Chief Moselekatse, to the Tropic of Capricorn, by Captain William Cornwallis Harris, H. E. I. Company's Engineers on the Bombay Establishment. London: John Murray, Albemarle-street, 1839.

66

MONTHS before this curious volume reached us, we had read, with extraordinary interest, many of its most stirring scenes in the December Number of the "Bengal Sporting Magazine;" a periodical which devoted five and thirty of its pages to extracts from Captain Harris's African Travels, as originally published in India. There is no denying that we imbibed a shrewd notion the gallant author had been rowing in the boat that whilom conveyed our friend Gulliver on his voyage. This, be it said, was our impression on a first glance of the Captain's adventures—chances, by St. Nicholas ! that made each particular hair of our Brutus as perpendicular as the cane of a drum-major of the Guards. Lately, at one fell swoop, Mr. Murray, of Albemarle-street, placed the wondrous story before us: we read and read again, and, as use lessens marvel," grew first reconciled to, then familiar with, its "moving accidents by flood and field." Africa is the land of the marvellous. Abyssinian Bruce was scoffed to the grave as the monstrous fabricator of impossibilities, that experience has established to be facts. Surely Captain Harris has every right to claim the support of that precedent. We have but room for a single extract from his volume of especial interest; a passage, soit dit, of the sublime and terrific, such as, we opine, no Christian gentleman (to say nothing of a captain of the Hon. Company's Engineers) ever before encountered, whatever the future be destined to bring to pass. Be it not imagined that we speak, or would insinuate aught disparaging of one who has given us the pleasantest book that we have met since the Le Vaillant of our early days. If the least shadow of the sarcastic appear to tint our page, let the reader set it down to the account of that envy, from which human nature is rarely, if ever, exempt; and ask himself, how one mortal hunter, whose brightest feat has been to tally a fox, perchance, from Norton Gorse or Melton Spiney, may hear of a contemporary "of woman born" giving the view holloa! to a drove of elephants, and turning up, in the open, a giraffe eighteen feet of stature from hoof to

crown.

"Christmas-day was pregnant with an event, which, for some time, cast a dismal gloom over the party, and had nearly caused my separation from it during the remainder of the journey. Three hours before that festive morn had dawned upon us, our search for water was renewed-the moon enabling us to trace the wagon-road, although, at every step, it was becoming less and less distinct. Arriving, as the day broke, at the summit of a gentle ascent, which here, disturbing the monotony of the otherwise uniformly level flat, had obstructed our view to the southward, another vast landscape presented itself to our gaze. Endless meads, clad in a vernal and variegated robe of gay but

scentless flowers, in whose presence the desert seemed to smile, spreading away before us, exhibited the motley confusion of a Turkey carpet. One isolated tumulus stood like a pine-apple in the centre; and, in the distance, three rectangular table-topped mountains, of singularly uniform appearance, reminded the spectator of terraced barrack-rooms-shooting-boxes, perhaps, erected by the giants of olden times. Hair-brained gnoos, careering over the plain, hailed our advance-now stopping inquisitively to scrutinize the wagons then lashing their dark sides with their snowy tails, as they hastily retreated. Large troops of blesbucks, or white-faced antelopes, a pied species that we had rarely met with before, likewise chequered the scene; and, with herds of springbucks, quaggas, and ostriches, announced the proximity of water. sently, to our delight, we descried a 'reed-encircled fountain,' at which, after twenty-eight hours of total abstinence, the dying oxen were enabled to slake their terrible thirst. A strong calcareous deposit adhering to the vegetation, rendered the water extremely bitter to the taste; and it was by the exercise of the long whips alone, that the cattle were prevented from plunging into the pool before our casks had been filled.

Pre

"The accidental, but important discovery of portions of a broken yoke key, here enabled the Hottentots to decide the knotty and long-argued question, whether the outward-bound tracks upon which we were proceeding, were those of Dutch, or of Griqua wagons. Opinion being now unanimous in favour of the former, it was determined to follow them as long as they should preserve a south-westerly direction. The total absence of fuel obliged us, after an hour's halt, to continue our march over numerous salt-pans, upon which herds of blesbucks were busily licking the crystalized efflorescence. Alarmed at our approach, vast troops of them were continually sweeping past, against the wind, carrying their broad, white noses close to the ground, like a pack of harriers in full cry. Never having killed any of these antelopes, and our stock of provision requiring to be recruited, I mounted Breslar, my favourite Rosinante, and never heeding whither I sped, dashed into the thick of them. The pine-apple hill bore east about five miles, and, I fancied, was a neverfailing land-mark to direct my return to the road, which, although faint, could readily be distinguished by a practised eye. Dealing death around, I continued to scour the plain, the herd before me increasing from hundreds to thousands, and reinforcements still pouring in from all directions; when, crying Hold, enough,' I stayed my hand from slaughter. Having divested some of the slain from their brilliant party-coloured robes, and packed the spolia on my horse, I set out to rejoin the wagons; but, ah! how vainly did I seek for them. Again and again I strained my eyes for the road, and cantered to and fro between the string of frosted salt-pans; and the little hill, which, floating in the sea of mirage that environed me, seemed as if poised in the sky. The monotony of the landscape baffled all my attempts at recognition, and my search was utterly fruitless. Every feature of the cone was precisely the same-the table-mountains were completely obscured by the vapour-and, in the constant recurrence of similar forms, I lost the points of the compass, and, at last, became totally bewildered.

"To retrace my steps over plains so trampled by innumerable herds, was clearly impossible. At one moment, as if in mockery, a solitary quagga, magnified ten thousand times by the treacherous mirage, loomed like the white tilt of a wagon; but my joy at the supposed discovery was invariably followed by the bitterest disappointment. Again, a group of pigmy bushwomen, walking unnoticed among a herd of blesbuck, and seen through the same deceptive medium, personated our followers with the cattle. Alas! these, too, fled at my approach, and jabbered like baboons when I had overtaken them. Several hours had thus passed in idle search. Spent by fatigue and anxiety, my parched tongue rattling like a board against the palate of my mouth, I wandered on over flowery wastes, still lengthening as I advanced. Dry tanks, surrounded by a garden of pinks and marigolds, served only to increase my sufferings; but neither fount, nor pool, nor running stream, greeted my strain

ing gaze. At length the refraction dissipating with the declining day, the three table-topped mountains became again visible in the horizon. With the consoling reflection that, at all events, I was now advancing in the same direction as the caravan, I hastened forward, and, before dusk, found myself not a little revived by a draught of the clearest water from a serpentine river flowing to the westward; the banks of which were trimmed with reeds and dwarf willows, while portions of its sandy bed were imprinted with the heavy footsteps of a troop of lions.

"The mind becomes even more readily habituated to hardship and suffering than the body. Everything around me was vague and conjectural, and wore an aspect calculated to inspire despondency; yet I no sooner became convinced that I was actually lost in the heart of a howling wilderness, inhabited, if at all, by barbarous and hostile tribes, than I felt fully prepared to meet the emergency. The setting sun having given me the bearing of the table-mountains considerably to the westward of south, it was evident, that, without being aware of it, I had crossed the road, and ridden too far to the eastward. In the hope of yet retrieving my error, I hurried down the river as fast as possible; but night closing in, was fain to prepare for a bivouac among the bushes. The stars were completely concealed behind a clouded sky, and repeated flashes of lightning were accompanied by distant thunder. Having completed all my preparations, I was listening, with breathless attention, for the cracking of a whip, or the signal guns, which I knew would be fired from the wagons, when, to my inexpressible delight, a joyous beaconfire shone suddenly forth on the river. Upon consideration, I felt puzzled to account for its appearance in a spot which I had so recently passed; but, concluding that the wagons had subsequently arrived there, I laid the flattering unction to my soul, and groped my way towards it. My disappointment and disgust may better be imagined than described, when, by the light of the fire, I discovered a gang of bushmen, with their imp-like squaws, carousing over a carcase. I slunk silently back to my den, fully impressed with the necessity of remaining perfectly quiet, but scarcely hoping that my horse would be so fortunate as to escape the observation of these lynx-eyed vagabonds.

"The uneasy snorting of my unfortunate steed, and his constant efforts to get loose, soon apprised me of the presence of lions at no great distance to windward; but the fear of attracting my two-legged enemies to the spot, prevented my kindling a fire for his protection, or even for dressing a koorhaan,❤ with which I had taken care to provide myself. Dying of hunger, and my 'girdle of famine' + tightened to the last hole, I felt strangely tempted to devour my Christmas repast uncooked. About midnight, however, having prepared a deep oven, I ventured to light a fire, and the fowl being duly baked and disposed of, I presently betook myself to sleep.

"The following morning set in with tremendous rain. Drenched, cold, and cramped, I arose from my aquatic bed, and at once perceived that all hope of finding the trail of our wagons was at an end. The soil consisting chiefly of a red loamy earth, from which the faintly marked tracks were easily obliterated, I resolved to follow the course of the river several miles further to the westward; and then, should I fail in finding the wagons, to cross the country in a direct line to the conical hill, which was still a conspicuous land-mark— thus certainly intersecting the road, if, indeed, any traces of it remained, of which I began to be doubtful. To this programme I rigorously adhered, walking the greater part of the way to save my harassed steed, upon whose back I now contemplated the probability of having to seek my way to the colonya probability which was mightily increased about sunset, when I found

Florican.

The leathern strap worn round the waist, is called by the savages a Lambele strap, or hunger girdle.

myself preparing to perfect my acquaintance with the cone, by roasting on its summit

In a deep cave dug by no mortal hand.'

"During this second day's weary pilgrimage, scorched by the ardent and reflected rays of a summer sun, I arrived at an extensive pond, covered with water lilies, and bordered by a broad belt of flags and rushes. Hastily approaching the margin, I became suddenly ingulfed in a pitfall, six feet in depth, filled with mire and water, from which I extricated myself with inconceivable difficulty. On recovering my shoes out of the stiff blue clay at the bottom, I perceived that the whole tank was closely invested by a chain of these traps, which had been carefully covered over by my friends the bushmen. Having shot a springbuck, I here scorched enough of the flesh to satisfy the cravings of hunger; and slinging a fine fat leg on either side of the saddle, took up my night's lodging, as already described, without having been able to discover the smallest traces of the road.

"The night was serene and starlight. From the top of my stronghold I looked out upon the tranquil expanse beneath me, and listened for hours to catch some friendly melody that might direct my bewildered footsteps. Where, alas! was the busy hum of men?' The shrill neighing of the wild ass, the bleat of the timid springbuck, or the bellow of the gnoo, with the deep-drawn distant sighing of a prowling lion, occasionally borne along upon the breeze, alone disturbed the grave-like stillness of the wilderness! Seriously did I now debate with myself upon the propriety of making for the colony, instead of prolonging my search. It is true that everything betwixt me and it was wrapped in uncertainty, and that to arrive there I should have to pass alone through an unknown and inhospitable region; but, on the other hand, I had already done all that human ingenuity could devise, without the smallest success. I estimated my distance from the New Hantam to be about two hundred miles; and being well provided with ammunition, there was a fair prospect of my being able to reach that district in six or seven days, unless the scarcity of game should oblige me to sacrifice my steed. Taking into consideration, however, the long and dismal state of uncertainty that the measure would entail upon my companion, I finally determined to make one more huntsman-like cast before giving up the search in despair.

"Another day dawned; again I saddled my trusty beast, and struck into the pathless waste, intending to make a wide sweep to the northward and westward, where it was possible that rain might not have fallen. About noon, lifting up my eyes from the ground, on which they had vainly sought for any indication of the party having passed, to my inexpressible joy and delight, I recognised the sedge-grown fountain at which we had breakfasted on Christmas morning! Vaulting into the saddle, I eagerly dashed towards the spot, and instantly hit upon the trail of our wagons; steadily following up which, I shortly fell in with a party of Bechuana, of both sexes, who proved to be members of the remnant of a tribe called Lihoya, and were engaged in eating up a blesbuck that had been caught in one of their pitfalls. Having, through the agency of a broken cigar, negotiated a treaty of alliance with these terrified savages, who, as usual, had fled on perceiving me, I pointed to the wheeltracks, and gave them, by signs, to understand that I was in search of my wagons. They instantly understood my meaning, and holding up both hands, pointed to the western horizon. The ladies, although very nervous at first, had, in the mean time, conceived a violent attachment for the brass buttons of my jacket-pointing to them, and repeatedly exclaiming, with dry mouths, ‘Tullana, tullana!" Upon my presenting these, together with a knife with which their amputation had been performed, they became perfectly insane, and declared their intention of accompanying me in person for the purpose of receiving further presents. Placing myself under the willing guidance of this * Anglicè, 'Buttons, buttons!'