THE SABLE ANTELOPE. 



Striking in appearance, magnificent in proportions, 

 the handsome sable antelope was the crowning 

 trophy, the spolia opima of Sir Cornwallis Harris' 

 famous African expedition of 1836 — 7. Fitly indeed 

 is the name of the sable antelope associated with 

 that of Harris, as one links that of the clouded tiger 

 with Sir Stamford Raffles. So brilliant and enchant- 

 ing a narrative of adventure has been left by its 

 discoverer that the account of his journey reads more 

 like a romance than a record of sober fact. 



At that time inner South Africa was but little 

 known ; diamond mines and company-promoting lay 

 far in the future, and, save for the reports of a few 

 hardy traders and elephant hunters, the country in 

 the region of the tropic of Capricorn was as a sealed 

 book. Instead of being a nursery for millionaires it 

 was a playground for wild beasts, a vast natural 

 zoological park overcrowded with inmates ; a paradise 

 for the naturalist, for the sportsman, and for the 

 mercenary hunter after hides and ivory. In Van 

 Riebeck's time (1652) buffalo and elephant, lion and 

 strandwolf had extended to the very seashore; as 

 late as 1731 Kolben described a buffalo hunt near 

 Capetown. Although the game had enormously 

 receded in the long interval that had elapsed, many 

 millions of animals yet remained to ornament that 



