214 NATURE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA 



trate the parched and pathless recesses of the upper 

 Kalahari before one may set eyes upon this stately 

 quadruped, the Eland or elk — an absurd name — of 

 the old-time Boers, the T'ganna of the Hottentots, 

 Poofo of the Bechuanas, and Impoofo of the Zulus 

 and Matabele. This northern portion of the Kala- 

 hari — well provided as it is with nutritious grasses 

 and vast areas of shady forests of giraffe-acacia and 

 mopani, and isolated by its utter lack of surface- 

 water during eight months in the year from the 

 assaults of native or European hunters — has, down 

 to the present time, afforded safe sanctuary to many 

 of the rarer South African fauna. Here have 

 sheltered in these terrible days of extermination 

 many of those remarkable mammals, which, during 

 the cooler months of South African winter — say from 

 April till November — are enabled to support life 

 without tasting water. The giraffe, the eland, the 

 hartebeest, the gemsbok, and even the koodoo, are 

 to be found in these inaccessible haunts, far remote 

 from any water-supply for great part of the year ; 

 the succulent melons and bulbs, and the grasses and 

 leafage of the desert alone affording them moisture. 

 But, even in these unexplored wilds, these rare 

 creatures can, now-a-days, be scarcely considered safe. 

 Directly the rains fall, hunters from among the 

 Bakwena, Bangwaketse, and Bamangwato tribes, 

 w^ell-mounted, and armed with breech-loading rifles, 



