With Flashlight and Ritie -^ 



stiff bearing-. lUit wIkmi, hastening our steps, we get quite 

 near to them, they take to tlight. They begin by running- 

 along the ground, but then, despite their heaviness, they 

 sail through the air on their mighty pinions with surprising 

 lightness, and get quickly into sheher. 



But none of these creatures can arrest me in my march 

 to-dav. Only here and there do I delax- a few minutes to 

 observe some animal which particularly interests me. Thus- 

 my attention is caught now and then by pretty dik-dik 

 antelopes {Madoijna kirki) gathered together by twos- 

 or threes. 



After two hours of wandering and the negotiation of a 

 great many steej) torrent-beds, often more than thirty-five feet 

 deep, there suddenly appear in the rocky and thorny ground 

 beloneiiiLT to the hills which fringe the mountain-shelves, 

 two greenish-grey antelopes, whose aspect forms a striking 

 contrast to that of their fellows of the plain. These are 

 the pretty little mountain antelopes, which take the place 

 of the chamois in Africa — the klipspringer, called by the 

 Masai " n' gnossoiru." 



The only European form of the antelope — the chamois 

 — is not found in Africa ; the beautiful ibex, moreover, 

 has only two representatives in the north of the continent. 

 P)Ut widelv dispersed over the Dark Continent is the hill- 

 climbing klipspringer, with its curious hard-grained, stift- 

 haired pelt. 



The klipspringer demands most strenuous stalking from 

 the hunter, and therefore fascinates him. This peculiar 

 animal is found in many phases, and as those brought me 

 from the Ahisai desert proved to be unknown to science, 



600 



