The book of antelopes, vol. 4 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 4 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
“The range of this species is very wide, and specimens have been
found wherever Southern Africa has been explored. Not very many
years ago the animal was frequently seen within the northern
boundary of the Cape Colony, and if we are to credit the
statements of the aborigines there was a time when it occurred
much more to the southward than even the locality alluded to, and
from which it has now in a great measure, if not completely,
disappeared. It is an animal which congregates, and commonly from
six to twelve individuals are found associated together. Herds of
this description are generally met in districts abounding with
small hills or hilly ridges, and to such elevations they appear to
resort in preference to the plains. The number of herds in any
given tract is comparatively small, so that the animal, though
generally diffused, is, nevertheless, nowhere abundant. Its pace
is a gallop, which, in appearance, is of a heavy character, but
its progress is amazingly rapid. It is an animal extremely
vigilant, and always appears to be in fear of enemies; hence it
comes seldom within the range of the hunter’s gun.”
The well-known sportsman and naturalist Sir William Cornwallis Harris,
whose expedition through the interior of the Colony up to the Tropic
of Capricorn took place in 1836 and 1837, writes in his usual charming
style of this favourite object of the hunter’s pursuit[4]:—
“Not less from its singular beauty than from its extreme rarity,
there were few game animals in the whole African catalogue that I
more eagerly sought for than the Roan Antelope—my hankering after
its gay spoils being moreover greatly increased by the
difficulties that I at first experienced in obtaining possession
of them. According to indications given by my kind friend Dr.
Smith, in whose cabinet I had seen this noble and imposing
Antelope, it was on an elevated tract of rocky table-land forming
a terrace on the mountains between Daniel’s Kuil and Kramer’s
Fontein, that I first disturbed a herd whilst wandering alone in
search of them along the ‘rigging’ of the hills. The thin covering
of earth supported only a scant and faded vegetation, together
with a few scrubby trees and bushes which grew from the fissures
of the rock. Surmounted by a pair of jagged ibex-looking horns,
the magpie-head of a sturdy old hull, protruded above a thin copse
of brushwood through which I was riding, was not to be mistaken. I
sprang from my horse, and as the whole bloom-coloured herd arose
to make its rush, sent a bullet spinning betwixt the ribs of their
gallant leader. But, although tantalized by an occasional glimpse
of his silvery form, I followed the bloody trail over hill and
through dale for eleven long hours, desisting only when the sun
had gone down and daylight would serve me no longer, I was finally
doomed to disappointment through lack of assistance. Not another
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