1. 



The Antelopes of Somali-Land. 



AFRICA is truly the land of Antelopes. Of about one hundred 

 and twenty of these graceful Ruminants known to Science, nearly 

 four-fifths are found only within the limits of that continent, and, with 

 few exceptions, all the largest and most highly-developed forms of these 

 animals are restricted to the Ethiopian Region. Antelopes are found 

 over every part of Africa, from Algeria to the Cape, and from the 

 Gambia to Zanzibar. They are met with in every variety of country, 

 whether it be desert, swamp, grassy plain, or forest. Each kind of 

 country has its peculiar forms of Antelope, whereas the Deer, which 

 frequent corresponding situations in all other parts of the world 

 except Australia, are entirely absent from the ^Ethiopian Region. 



Although, as has just been stated, Antelopes are to be met with 

 in every part of Africa, they are most numerous where the country 

 is comparatively open, and where there are grassy plains interspersed 

 with sheltering bushes. South of the Tropic of Capricorn this con- 

 dition generally prevails, and throughout the Cape Colony and its 

 adjoining territories Antelopes are — or, at all events, before the 

 advent of a European population were — everywhere abundant. The 

 early settlers at the Cape describe Antelopes as to be met with in 

 herds of thousands on the " veldt," and in parts of Africa where the 

 white man and his destructive firearms have not yet penetrated a 

 similar condition prevails even at the present day. When we advance 

 farther north and meet with the dense forests of the Congo and 

 Niger basins we find the mass of Antelopes holding rather to the 

 more open lands on the eastern coast, throughout which they are to 

 be met with in great abundance up to Cape Guardafui. The vast 

 plains traversed by the Upper Nile and its tributaries are likewise 

 well-stocked with Antelope life ; but, in the Great Sahara, only some 

 of the more desert-loving forms are to be found. In Senegambia, 

 again, and in the more open districts on the West Coast, many forms 

 of Antelopes occur, but they cannot rival the numbers and varieties 

 of those of Eastern and Southern Africa. 



In former days, the sportsman or naturalist who was interested 

 in the pursuit of Antelopes would undoubtedly have taken his passage 

 to Cape Town, and proceeded thence into the interior. At the present 

 time, however, as we have already mentioned. Cape-land is well-nigh 



