WILDEBEEST AND HARTEBEEST 353 



the Abyssinian neighborhood; and yet here again there are 

 great stretches of similar territory in between in which they 

 are not found at all. The problem is all the more puzzling 

 because the topi is often very plentiful where it exists at all; 

 if it was everywhere rare, it would be easy to understand 

 why it might have died out in certain places. It is another 

 instance of how very much we yet have to learn from the 

 book of nature. Many of the problems connected with the 

 distribution and abundance of African antelopes are, with 

 our present knowledge, insoluble. Compare, for instance^ 

 the distribution of the roan antelope — treating the various 

 forms together — and the topi — also treating the various 

 forms together. The topi is usually abundant wherever 

 found at all; the roan is usually much less abundant where 

 it is found. The roan is at home in surroundings as diverse 

 as if they were in different zones and different continents. 

 We found them among the cold, wet mountains, south of 

 the Uasin Gishu, where a moose would have found the cli- 

 mate entirely congenial, and also on the hot, parched flats 

 of the Lado, with a vegetation as utterly different as was 

 the climate itself. Yet there are vast reaches of country 

 from which it is entirely absent; and we never came across 

 it in such abundance as we often found the topi. The topi 

 kept everywhere to country of substantially one kind ; and 

 yet, for no apparent reason, its distribution in this kind of 

 country is narrowly and irregularly limited. It abounded 

 in company with one kind of hartebeest on the Loita Plains, 

 and in company with another kind on the Uasin Gishu; 

 but it was absent from precisely similar country — as the 

 Athi Plains — on which one or the other of the hartebeests 

 swarmed. The roan, except for its face markings, is on the 



