116 RECORDS OF BIG GAME 
Shot in Somaliland by Capt. H. G. C. Swayne. 
KLIPSPRINGER (Oreotragus saltator). 
Somali name— Alakud.” 
This hardy and most graceful little mountaineer affords the best 
mountain shooting to be obtained in Africa. The sight of a pair of 
Klipspringers, springing like balls of indiarubber up some sheer cliff or 
difficult mountain-side, apparently without the least effort in the world, 
or leaping downwards from ledge to ledge or pinnacle to pinnacle, is a 
thing never to be forgotten. To bag Klipspringer, however, the gunner 
must be prepared, especially among the steep and difficult mountain 
ranges of the Cape Colony, for a long and arduous stalk under a hot 
sun. To this difficulty of approach, indeed, as well as to its own wary 
and suspicious nature, the Klipbok owes much of its immunity. The 
Boers, who are not fond of mountain work, seldom pursue it—unless 
hard up for saddle-stuffing, for which this antelope’s brittle coat is 
famously adapted—and the Klipspringer in consequence is still fairly 
abundant all over South Africa, and thence, in mountainous regions, 
right away to Abyssinia. Klipspringer venison is excellent. 
It is only encountered in one place in East Africa, ze. Mount Elgon 
and the hills in its vicinity, very shy and active, and frequenting the 
steep rocks. Will probably be found throughout the Turkwell country 
and in the hills forming the El Koromorj Range which runs north- 
ward to the country of Ngaboto, Lake Nyassa. 
HEIGHT at shoulder, 1 foot 64 inches (Dr. Percy Rendall). 
