The book of antelopes, vol. 3 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 3 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
In the eastern desert of Egypt the Dorcas Gazelle appears in these days
to be not nearly so common. Mr. E. N. Buxton, who traversed the eastern
desert in his expedition after _Capra sinaitica_, tells us that
two or three Gazelles together were the most he ever saw at one time.
Between the Nile and the granite mountains 80 miles to the east, a
very arid district, Mr. Buxton only saw Gazelles once. They were more
numerous among the foot hills of the Kettar range and the porphyry
mountains, for the obvious reason that there is more vegetation there.
The Gazelles frequently depicted in the paintings of the ancient
Egyptian tombs and temples were, no doubt, usually _Gazella dorcas_
in Lower, and _G. isabella_ in Upper Egypt, although they were
probably also well acquainted with _G. arabica_. Dr. Hartmann in his
interesting disquisition on the animals of these paintings (Zeitschr.
f. Aegyptische Sprache und Alterthumskunde, 1864, p. 22) gives us the
hieroglyphic symbols of the Gazelle, and its corresponding name as
“_Gahés_.” It was evidently a common object of chase even in those days.
Crossing over into the Holy Land, we find the Dorcas Gazelle registered
in Canon Tristram’s ‘Fauna and Flora of Palestine’ as met with in all
suitable localities. From the same author’s ‘Natural History of the
Bible’ we extract the following passages relating to this favourite
animal:--
“The Gazelle (_Gazella dorcas_) is by far the most abundant
of all the large game in Palestine; indeed it is the only wild
animal of the chase which an ordinary traveller has any chance
of seeing. Small herds of gazelles are to be found in every part
of the country, and in the south they congregate in herds of
nearly 100 together. One such herd I met with at the southern
end of the Jebel Usdum, or salt mountain, south of the Dead Sea,
where they had congregated to drink of the only sweet spring
within several miles, Ain Beida. Though generally considered an
animal of the desert and the plains, the gazelle appears at home
everywhere. It shares the rocks of Engedi with the wild goats;
it dashes over the wide expanse of the desert beyond Beersheba;
it canters in single file under the monastery of Marsaba. We
found it in the glades of Carmel, and it often springs from its
leafy covert on the back of Tabor, and screens itself under the
thorn bushes of Gennesaret. Among the grey hills of Galilee it
is still ‘the roe upon the mountains of Bether,’ and I have
seen a little troop of gazelles feeding on the Mount of Olives,
close to Jerusalem itself. While in the open grounds of the
south it is the wildest of game, and can only be approached,
unless by chance, at its accustomed drinking-places, and that
before the dawn of morning; in the glades of Galilee it is very
easily surprised, and trusts to the concealment of its covert
for safety. I have repeatedly startled the gazelle from a brake
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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