220 NATURE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA 



cult and a thorny subject, and even Darwin himself 

 was oftentimes puzzled to account for the capricious 

 nature of the markings and stripings of animals. 



Schweinfurth found these striped elands in the 

 country about the head-waters of the Nile, which 

 would appear to be about their farthest range north- 

 ward. In no part of Africa do elands appear to 

 have grown to so vast a size, or to have been so 

 abundant, as in the country between the Cape and 

 Lake Ngami. Examples of the dun-coloured (un- 

 striped) or desert va^riety have been killed measuring 

 the enormous height of nineteen hands two inches 

 (six feet six inches) at the shoulder. These were, of 

 course, mature old bulls, carrying an immense 

 amount of flesh and fat, and of prodigious bulk. 

 Sir John Barrow and Sir W. Cornwallis Harris 

 both mention instances of this measurement, which, 

 however, in the good days was by no means 

 uncommon. The enormous weight of two thousand 

 pounds has been assigned to one of these champion 

 old bulls. In these degenerate times, however, the 

 hunter would have to go far before lighting on 

 a specimen ranging much over fifteen hundred 

 pounds. It is to be remembered that, forty or fifty 

 years ago immense troops of elands ranged freely 

 over the pick of the country, selecting the richest 

 pastures, and grazing free and undisturbed. Now-a- 

 days, like many other species, they have changed 



