MAMMALIA — HART-BEES T. 359 



taking a leap. The height of this animal is about two feet and a half , 

 the length of the horns, measuring them along the curvature, is nine 

 inches; their distance at the base, where they are nearly three inches thick, 

 is not more than one inch; and they gradually widen from thence to the 

 distance of five inches, when they turn inwards, and nearly approach each 

 other at the tips. They are of a deep black color, annulated above half 

 way up, are smooth towards the top, and terminate in a sharp point. 



This animal inhabits the Cape of Good Hope, and is there called the 

 spri?igbock, from the prodigious Vaps it takes when any person suddenly 

 appears. When pursued, it is pleasing and curious to see the whole herd 

 leaping to a considerable height over each other's heads ; and they will 

 sometimes take three or four leaps successively. In this situation, they 

 seem suspended in the air, looking over their shoulders at their pursuers. 

 They are extremely swift, and it must be a good horse that can overtake 

 them. They migrate annually from the interior of the country, in small 

 herds, and continue near the Cape for two or three months, and then retreat 

 towards the north in herds of many thousands, covering the great plains for 

 several hours in their passage. 



They are attended in these migrations, by numbers of lions, hyaenas, and 

 other wild beasts of prey, which commit great devastation among them. 

 They also make periodical migrations, in seven or eight years, in herds 

 of many thousands, from the north, being probably compelled to leave their 

 haunts in the Terra de Natal, by the excessive drought of that region, 

 where it sometimes happens that not a drop of rain falls for two or three 

 years. In these migrations, they spread over the whole country of CafTraria, 

 which they desolate, not leaving a blade of grass. Their flesh is excellent ; 

 and, with other antelopes, they furnish the venison of the Cape. 



THE HART-BEEST, OR CAPE STAG. 



This animal is supposed to be the Eubalus of the ancients, and is the 

 most common of all the larger gazelles known in Africa. Its height to the 

 top of the shoulders, is about four feet ; the form of the body is a mixture 

 of the stag and heifer. The tail is rather more than a foot long, asinine, 

 and terminated by a tuft of hair ; the horns are very strong, black, and 

 embossed with rings of an irregular form : they are almost close at the 

 base, diverging upwards, and at the top bending backwards in a horizontal 

 direction, almost to the tips, which are distant from each other. Some 

 of these horns are eighteen inches long, and above ten inches in girth at 



1 Ant Hope caama, Desm. 



