i8o A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



shitting ot the river's bed. That they exist, however, 

 eastwards along the southern bank of the Zambesi as 

 far as the Victoria Falls (about sixty miles from the 

 mouth of the Chobe) I think probable, as I saw one 

 shot on the very brink ; but, though I followed the 

 river's bank all the way, I never met with another 

 till I reached the Chobe. The natives report them 

 common on the eastern bank of the Zambesi, north 

 of Sesheke. From a plate in Dr. Livingstone's 

 first book, I always imagined that the pookoo was 

 found at the Lake Ngami ; but, as he makes no 

 mention of it in the letterpress before reaching the 

 Zambesi, and as neither Andersson nor Baldwin, who 

 both visited the lake, seems to have known of its 

 existence at all, this is perhaps erroneous. In size 

 they stand about the same height at the shoulder as 

 the impala, but, being much thicker-set and stouter- 

 built, must weigh consicierably more. The colour is 

 a uniform foxy red, the hair along the back about the 

 loins being often long and curly ; the tips of the ears 

 are black. The males alone bear horns, which are 

 ringed to within three inches of the point, and curve 

 forwards like those of the lechwe, to which animal 

 they are very closely allied. The longest pair I have in 

 my possession measure sixteen inches, which is about 

 the extreme length they ever attain. These antelopes 

 are usually met with in herds of from three or four 

 to a dozen in number ; but on one of the alluvial 

 flats to which I have before referred I have seen as 

 many as fifty in one herd. Sometimes ten or a dozen 

 rams may be seen together, or a solitary old fellow 

 quite alone. I have often seen these antelopes feeding 

 in company with a herd of impalas, and then their 

 heavy thick-set forms contrasted strongly with the 

 slim and graceful proportions of the latter animals. 



