SPRINGBOK SHOOTING. 229 



about fifty-eight inches. Its body colour is of a 

 bright rich fawn, with a deep chestnut band running 

 along either side from flank to shoulder, and slight 

 bands of the same colour on either side of the white 

 ruff or hackle I have mentioned *as lying on its 

 back. The head and face, throat, belly, tail, and 

 inner parts of the limbs are white, rivalling in purity 

 the snowy " blaze " formation on the croup. The 

 horns are twelve or fourteen inches long, lyre- 

 shaped, black, stout, and strongly annulated, and 

 the tips bend inwards. In the female, the horns are 

 slighter than in the male. The eyes are large, dark, 

 and tender. The slender wiry limbs, and light well- 

 proportioned frame, are fashioned exactly for speed 

 and grace, and for those marvellous displays of 

 strength and agility of which we had been witnesses. 

 The springbok can exist for long intervals without 

 water, and seems to have been designed by Nature to 

 adorn the parched karroos over which it delights to 

 scour. The flatness of its habitat enables it to 

 scan attentively and suspiciously every approaching 

 danger, and I suppose, for these reasons, the spring- 

 bok has suffered (except in trek bokken or migrations) 

 less than any other antelope from the attacks of the 

 Felidce and other wild animals. Altogether, the 

 springbok, with its grace, its speed, and its agility, 

 is one of the most beautiful and typical of the 

 twenty-five varieties of South African antelopes, and 

 standing as it does mid-way in size between the 

 gigantic eland and the tiny blauwbok, is a worthy 

 representative of the magnificent game that formerly 

 crowded these vast plains. 



We had noticed that the herds had now 

 scattered far and wide, with the exception of a 



