250 NATURE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA 



hundreds of elands, gemsbuck, the tolo or koodoo, 

 also springbucks and ostriches, without being war- 

 ranted thereby in inferring the presence of water 

 within tliirty or forty miles." I do not mean to 

 assert that in many localities, where water is plenti- 

 ful, koodoos do not drink; but I think it is un- 

 doubted that in desert regions, where water is scarce 

 or lacking, they have the faculty of existing without 

 it for considerable periods of time. This, too, is 

 certainly the case with koodoos still ranging the 

 waterless country along the western course of the 

 Molopo river in Lower Bechuanaland. 



I have said that koodoos are still plentiful in 

 Khama's country, Bamangwato, even at a short 

 distance from Palachwe. I have seen their spoor 

 certainly within three hours' ride of that place. In 

 1890, while I was at Palachwe, the young chief 

 Sekhome, heir apparent of Khama, was indulging in 

 large drives of game — in which koodoos were often 

 killed — at no great distance from the Bamangwato 

 capital. I well remember hearing of his anger at 

 the escape of a big koodoo bull and some cows from 

 the ring of hunters, and of the punishment that 

 followed. My hunting friends and myself first came 

 across these fine antelopes at Seleba Samoutchana, a 

 little beyond Seruey, two or three days north-west of 

 Palachwe, in some big bushy flats between isolated 

 hills — typical koodoo country. It is to be hoped 



