-^ The Antelopes of East Africa 



disposed to make a rush at me. In a moment I was hurled 

 several feet into the air. It was only by a miracle that 

 I escaped very serious injury, it not death. It took three 

 or four active men, armed like m\'self with whips, to 

 drive the beasts oft. In a week, however, the bull began 

 to show its contempt for even the heaviest whips, and 

 at last it had to be enclosed with its companion in a 

 smaller piece of ground, fenced in with strong stakes. Its 

 temper gradually got worse there, and at last it became 

 astonishinglv wild. The bull in the Zoolocrical Gardens 

 behaved in a very similar way. A short time afterwards 

 all three animals died of tuberculosis. Hitherto no 

 other white-bearded gnus have, I think, been brought to 

 Europe, but it is to be hoped that this will be achieved 

 later. 



Gnus are fonder than any other cUitelope of the open 

 velt, upon which they are usually to be found. Before 

 us there spreads, in the burning sunlight, the vast e.xtent 

 of the brio-ht-hued, reddish, o-limmerinL'- laterite soil ; and 

 hundreds of animals, thron^ino; toQ^ether, enliven its arid 

 stretches with colours that vary in the varying lights. 

 When the oft-seen mirage rises from the plain in 

 the midday glow — giving the illusion of bluish water- 

 surfaces— the gnus and zebras look as if thev were moving 

 about in water. About midday isolated groups of gnus 

 take their siesta under the scattered, measure thorn-bushes 

 of Sahaciora persica and other trees ; but during the 

 rest of the day the herds are to be seen dispersed over 

 the plain. 



It is very evident that here, as everywhere, lite in the 



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