THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



their surroundings are practically the only places where 

 the sable antelope can be hunted in British East Africa, 

 it has been shot over a good deal of late, so that the horns 

 of the remaining animals are not nearly as large and 

 beautiful as those from German East Africa and Nyassa- 

 land. It was around these hills that Mr. Kermit Roose- 

 velt, in the fall of 1909, succeeded in getting a couple of 

 fairly good heads. 



The sable antelope is one of the most wary animals 

 and seems to be possessed of splendid eyesight, which 

 makes him very difficult to stalk. He is nowhere very 

 plentiful, and seldom seen in herds of more than twenty 

 to forty animals, but more frequently met with in small 

 bands of from ten to fifteen, males and females. If pur- 

 sued, the sable antelope is capable of great speed, and as he 

 also seems to possess a good deal of staying qualities, he 

 is very hard, indeed, to overtake on horseback. However, 

 if the country is not too rough or dense, a good horse will, 

 as a rule, be able to catch up with this antelope, unless he 

 has had too much of a start. 



The sable, together with his cousin, the roan, are prob- 

 ably the two most courageous of the antelope family. If 

 a bull sable is wounded and sees his pursuer at close quar- 

 ters, he will invariably charge down on him with great 

 speed and determination, and with his mighty horns he 

 might be a very dangerous antagonist. In South Africa, 

 where in former days he was also hunted with dogs, he 

 often used to play great havoc with the pack, when they 

 approached him too closely. The natives are very fond 

 of making flutes of the horns of the sable antelope by cut- 

 ting a couple of holes in the upper part of the hollow horn. 



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