CH. XIV GRANDEST OF ORYX FAMILY 255 



the dying eland to the fierce defiance of every look 

 and gesture of a roan or sable antelope brought to 

 bay and fighting desperately to the very last. 

 These two latter animals are amongst the finest of 

 all the African antelopes, and by many sportsmen 

 the last named is considered the noblest of them all. 

 The magnificent greater koodoo, too, has many 

 warm admirers, whilst the inyala, lesser koodoo, and 

 Grant's gazelle, if not amongst the grandest of the 

 several genera to which they belong, are certainly 

 some of the most beautiful. 



But there is yet another species, whose praises 

 have of late years been sung by few, the successful 

 pursuit of which has always given me more satis- 

 faction than that of any other of the larger antelopes 

 of Southern Africa. This is the gemsbuck, the 

 grandest of all the handsome oryx family. Corn- 

 wallis Harris, Gordon Gumming, Oswell, Baldwin, 

 and others of those fortunate Englishmen who 

 travelled and hunted in South Africa when the last 

 century was only middle-aged have all written 

 enthusiastically of the chase of the gemsbuck and 

 the joy of securing a good head of this species. 



But with the spread of European settlements and 

 the steady advance of civilisation, these beautiful 

 animals have been driven from many of their 

 former haunts, and are now only to be found in the 

 most arid districts of Western South Africa ; and 

 though their range extends from the north-western 

 portion of the Gape Golony in the south to the 

 southern part of the Portuguese province of Angola 

 in the north, there can, I think, be but few districts 

 left where they are to be met with at the present 

 day in anything but small and widely scattered 

 herds. At least, a herd of about fifteen is the 

 greatest number that I have ever seen together, 

 though it must be remembered that I have only 

 met with the gemsbuck in the more easterly 



