8 7 o THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



country is either completely open or covered with stunted scrub. Gordon Gumming 

 writes that the gemsbok "thrives and attains high condition in barren regions where 

 it might be imagined that a locust would not find subsistence; and, burning as is 

 the climate, it is perfectly independent of water.which, from my own observation and 

 the repeated reports both of the Boers and Aborigines, I am convinced it never by 

 any chance tastes. Its flesh is deservedly esteemed, and ranks next to the eland." 



THE BEISA. 



(One-sixteenth natural size.) 



Mr. Selous states that the gemsbok is by no means fleet, and that it can be run to a 

 standstill by a hunter on foot. According to Boer reports, the gemsbok is enabled 

 to beat off the lion with its spear-like horns; and several instances are recorded 

 where the skeletons of the two animals have been found together, the body of the 

 lion having been transfixed by the horns of the antelope, which remained too firmly 

 fixed in the flesh to admit of their withdrawal during life. 



