VII POOKOO ANTELOPE 135 



of these animals had also been here very recently. 

 Before leaving this glorious scene, we went up to 

 look at the entrance to the gorge into which the 

 river rushes as it emerges from the chasm of the 

 falls, when, as we approached the edge, I, being first, 

 perceived, not twenty yards in front of me, through 

 the dense misty spray, a small antelope, which I took 

 for a reed-buck. It was standing browsing literally 

 on the very brink of the awful abyss, utterly regard- 

 less of the roar of the falling masses of water, the 

 drenching, penetrating spray (which by this time had 

 chilled us to the very bone), and, worse than all, of 

 the ruthless intruders upon its moist domain. A 

 bullet from Mr. Garden's rifle, which broke its fore- 

 leg, was the first intimation it received of our where- 

 abouts, and another through the shoulder settled it. 

 After the Kafirs had carried it beyond the reach of 

 the spray, to skin and cut up the meat, my attention 

 was called to it by one of my Matabele Kafirs crying 

 out : " What sort of a buck is this ? It isn't a reed- 

 buck — look at its tail ! " And on doing so I at 

 once saw that it was a species with which I was quite 

 unacquainted. It was a female, about the size of a 

 reed-buck, but rather heavier in the body, and in 

 colour a sort of foxy red, with long curly hair on 

 the back and haunches. We at first imagined it to 

 be a lech we ewe, but on asking our Zambesi natives, 

 they pronounced it to be a pookoo, an antelope 

 discovered by Dr. Livingstone, and named by him 

 after Major Vardon — {^Cobus Vardoni). They said 

 there were very few about here, but that higher up 

 the Zambesi, on the northern bank, and on the 

 southern bank of the Chobe, they were common ; 

 and this we afterwards found to be the case. 



Above the falls, from the point some sixty miles 



