THE BLESBOK ANTELOPE. 



A vast saltpan, glittering in the sunshine and 

 covered with coarse sand. Its surface is besprinkled 

 with saline particles, as if touched with hoar frost; 

 in places the limestone is hollowed out by the 

 tongues of countless generations of game, which 

 have resorted hither to lick the salt. The pan is 

 black with the herds which have come up in the 

 night, and the air is full of their bleatings ; a strong 

 bovine scent comes down wind. A troop of gemsbok 

 graze on the scanty hay-like grass ; their pied faces, 

 great stature, and long swishing tails make them 

 handsome and conspicuous, and the morning sun, 

 glancing along their bayonet horns, makes them 

 glitter as if of actual steel. A troop of fourteen 

 ostriches sail past, with long necks outstretched and 

 snowy plumes extended to the breeze. Further out 

 a vast herd of springbok spreads over the flat, their 

 myriads pouring over the frosted surface like sand 

 released from a bag ; while blue wildebeest and Bur- 

 chell zebra, Cape eland and roan antelope play a less 

 conspicuous part in the gathering. A huge area 

 at the edge of the pan blooms in one glorious mass 

 of purple brown ; scanned attentively, it is seen to be 

 composed of that magnificent antelope, white-faced 

 and glossy-coated the blesbok. 



The blesbok (Damaliscus albifrons) nunni of the 



