THE VANISHING ELAND 219 



found in connection with the eland. The eland of 

 the Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, 

 Namaqualand, and Damaraland, in the old days, and 

 the eland of the Kalahari at the present time, were, 

 and are, always entirely devoid of markings, the 

 body-colouring varying from pale dun or fawn in the 

 younger beasts to a bluish buff in the old animals. 

 In Mashonaland, the country between the Botletli 

 and the Zambesi, in Portuguese South-East Africa, 

 and beyond the Zambesi, in all parts of Africa 

 where elands are to be found, they are met with 

 bearing invariably a number of white stripings across 

 the body — very similar to the markings of the koodoo 

 — and are marked also with a black patch on the 

 inner side of the fore-arm, and a dark list runninir 

 down the spine. These characteristic stripings are 

 entirely wanting in the eland of South- Western 

 Africa, which, from the rapid narrowing of its habitat 

 and its constant persecution, is, as I have pointed 

 out, likely not long hence to vanish altogether. 



That the absence of stripings has accompanied a 

 more desert and waterless, more temperate and less 

 tropical habitat, is a plain fact enough. And that 

 the stripings appear in all elands throughout the 

 more tropical parts of Africa is also perfectly ap- 

 parent. To explain the variation is a much more 

 difficult matter. Possibly, heat and moisture have 

 something to do with it. This, however, js a diffi^- 



