344 ANTELOPES 



the country now known as the Orange River Colony, along the course 

 of the Vaal river and its tributaries ; and when travelling through 

 Griqualand in 1871 I saw the head and skin of a freshly killed kudu 

 at Campbellsdorp, and was assured that these antelopes were not 

 uncommon in the district, among the rocky scrub-covered hills running 

 parallel with the Vaal river. The kudu inhabiting the countries in 

 the neighbourhood of the Vaal and Orange rivers formed an isolated 

 community, separated from others of their kind by expanses of country 

 unsuited to their requirements. Possibly their ancestors crossed 

 during the rainy season from the head-waters of the Notwani river 

 to the thorn -thickets on the upper Molopo (where kudu were still 

 found not many years ago), and worked their way along that stream 

 till they reached the banks of the Orange river. The waters of the 

 Molopo have, however, long since ceased to reach the Orange river ; 

 and so, as kudu cannot cross waterless tracts, the descendants of those 

 which crossed the desert along the banks of the former stream, at 

 a time when western South Africa was better watered than at the 

 present day, became isolated from the rest of their kind, and were 

 gradually driven eastwards by the Hottentot tribes living on the 

 banks of the Orange river into the hilly country along the Vaal. 



" I have, indeed, been informed by Mr. F, Barber that he met 

 with kudu in a part of the southern Kalahari where there was 

 absolutely no water ; but he told me that they were here living on 

 * chama,' or wild melons, and I imagine that these kudu having 

 wandered into the desert during the rainy season, and finding that, 

 as the pools dried up, the melons supplied them with the water they 

 required, they remained in the district. And since all animals, 

 including domesticated cattle, lions, leopards, and even human beings, 

 can support life on these melons, this is a special case, and does not 

 put kudu on the same plane with true desert-animals, like gemsbuck, 

 eland, and giraffes. It is, however, possible that in some districts of 

 South Africa kudu have become to a certain extent able to live in 

 waterless tracts ; although my own experience has led me to believe 

 that these antelopes, like all the rest of the tragelaphine subfamily, 

 are never found at a distance of more than a iQ.\\ miles from water. 



" Kudu are found in the neighbourhood of all the rivers of western 

 South Africa which run through tracts of desert waterless country, 

 such as the Chobi, Tamalakan, Botletli, and Notwani ; and during 

 the dry time of year it is hopeless to look for these animals at a 

 distance of more than three or four miles from the river's bank. 

 During the rainy season, however, when the desert-pools hold water, 



