XIII GLORIOUS GOOD FORTUNE 243 



passed right through his shoulders, and having 

 expanded on impact, had torn his heart to pieces. 

 I had the dead female brought to where the male 

 had fallen, and laid them side by side ; then stood 

 admiring them for a long time before I could bring 

 myself to skin them. To thus secure a very 

 handsome pair of inyala antelopes — whose ex- 

 cellently mounted skins are now safe in the 

 Mammalian Gallery of the Natural History Museum 

 at South Kensington — on the very first day I had 

 ever hunted for them, and after little more than an 

 hour's search — was indeed a most glorious and ex- 

 ceptional piece of good fortune, which, however, has 

 been balanced by many and many a day that I can 

 remember of unrequited labour in search of game. 



I think I had here better give Mr. Angas's very 

 careful descriptions of the inyala antelope, male 

 and female, as they are so detailed and precise that 

 they cannot be improved upon — except that, for a 

 reason which I shall refer to presently, I imagine 

 that the male whose skin he described could not 

 have been fully adult. 



Mr. Angas_ tells us that his notes " were drawn 

 up from recently killed specimens which he in vain 

 attempted to purchase from the Boers who 

 possessed them," and are as follows: *'The adult 

 male is about 7 feet 6 inches in total length, and 3 

 feet 4 inches high at the shoulder. Though elegant 

 in form, and with much of the grace of the solitary 

 koodoo, the robust and shaggy aspect of the male 

 bears considerable resemblance to that of the goat. 

 Legs clean, hoofs pointed and black, with two oval 

 cream-coloured spots in front of each fetlock, 

 immediately above the hoof Horns of the speci- 

 men in question, i foot 10 inches long,-^ twisted and 



^ It may be remembered that the unidentified antelope shot by Captain 

 Faulkner on the shore of Lake Nyasa, near Cape Maclear, stood 3 feet 4 

 inches at the shoulder, whilst the length of its horns was i foot 9 inches. 



