THE LARGER EAST AFRICAN ANTELOPES 



prominent year rings, running up to within a few inches 

 of the tip, and all of the horns of the antelopes, with a few 

 exceptions, grow almost straight upward and then for- 

 ward or backward. 



The bony internal core of the horns of almost all 

 antelopes is not honeycombed and full of holes, like that 

 of oxen, sheep, and goats, but hard and entirely solid. 

 Another characteristic of the antelope, with very few ex- 

 ceptions, is an easily distinguished gland beneath the eye, 

 which is entirely lacking in oxen and goats. Then again 

 while certain antelopes' teeth very much resemble those 

 of oxen, others are more like the teeth of sheep and goats. 



The antelopes have in ages past exclusively inhabited 

 Southern and Western Asia, from whence centuries ago 

 they migrated into Africa, through Arabia. With few and 

 less important species as exceptions, the antelopes proper 

 now inhabit only the Dark Continent, having almost com- 

 pletely disappeared from their former home, a fact that 

 still puzzles zoologians. The whole of South Africa was 

 once literally alive with antelopes of all kinds, and I have 

 myself heard tales from a good many old Boers, telling of 

 how, only a few decades ago, antelopes, such as the eland, 

 gnu, the oryx, different kinds of hartebeests and others, ex- 

 isted there in uncountable herds. But, alas ! most of these 

 antelopes are now very rare, and some of them entirely 

 exterminated in South Africa. 



It is in the countries to the north of the Zambesi River, 

 in Nyassaland, parts of Portuguese, German, and British 

 East Africa, that the hunter now meets the largest antelope 

 herds in existence. In these countries the vast plains at- 

 tract the antelopes, and they can still be seen there in great 



153 



