OSTRICH RICING IN AFRICA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1737, 11 January 1888, Page 3

OSTRICH RICING IN AFRICA

~~ ■». . — , _ Wo were treated to an exhibition whiuh was a novelty worth travelling miles to see — an ostrioh race. Two little oarts, the frames of which were, mode of bamboo, and the wheels similar to those of a velocipede, weighing, all the gear included, thirty-aeven pounds, were brought forth, and four very large ostriches, trained to the business and harnessed abreast, were attached to each one. The racecourse was a flat piece of country about four and one-fourth miles m length ; the distance to be travelled was four miles straight away and return. Two of the smallest specimens of African humanity ever seen, less than four feet m height and weighing about seventy -two pounds apiece, Bosjesmen, pure and eimple, were selected as charioteers, and all was ready. 1 had been provided with a nngnificent 16 hands high English hunter, having a record placing him among the very best saddle horses of Cape Town, and wan quarter way toward the turn of the course, pushing my fresh steed to do hit best, when the feathered bipeds started, and before I reaohed the turn the ostrich chariots had pasaod me, going and returning like a flash of lightning. I did see them, and yet si quickly did they van sh into distance that a pen picture, valuable for its accuracy cannot be given. The time taken at the starting-point by Beveral of the spectators was, for the four miles and return, nearly nineteen minutes — not very fast for ostriches so they said, but too rapid for English huiters, I know.—" Philadelphia Press."