268 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES chap. 



brought either to Kimberley or to Cape Town via 

 Walfisch Bay ; and these few exceptions to the 

 general rule only serve to show how very rarely 

 gemsbuck horns attain to a length of 44 inches and 

 upwards. The horns of the bulls sometimes attain 

 a length of 42 inches, but are, as a rule, several 

 inches shorter and a good deal stouter than those of 

 the cows. 



Although gemsbucks, when brought to bay, are 

 doubtless dangerous antagonists to dogs, and very 

 possibly sometimes kill lions which have attacked 

 them incautiously, I should doubt their being as 

 fierce an animal by nature as either the sable or 

 roan antelope. At least, I have never seen any of 

 those I have wounded make the same threatening 

 demonstrations as the last-named animals always do 

 when closely approached. I once fired at a bull 

 gemsbuck which was galloping obliquely past me, 

 and dropped him instantly, and as he was still lying 

 motionless when I cantered up to him, I thought he 

 was dead. I noted the position of the bullet-mark, 

 rather high up just behind the shoulder, and thought 

 it must have smashed the vertebral column and so 

 caused instant death. I then dismounted beneath 

 a neighbouring tree, and, placing my rif^e against 

 the stem, walked towards the dead animal — as I 

 thought. I was within a few yards of its head, 

 when suddenly, with scarcely a preliminary kick, it 

 rose to its feet and stood facing me. I was so near 

 it that I thought it would be sure to charge, as 

 almost any roan or sable antelope bull would have 

 done so in similar circumstances. But, much to my 

 relief, after eyeing me steadily for a few seconds, it 

 turned and galloped off, and might easily have got 

 away altogether, had my horse not been a good 

 one. When I eventually killed it, I found that my 

 first bullet had only grazed the vertebral column, 

 and momentarily paralysed the poor animal. But 



