ORDER ARTIODACTYLA I EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 697 



cheek-stripe, and by having the black of the throat more restricted. 

 Both races are here treated together. 



This is one of the most spirited-looking of the antelopes ; of erect 

 carriage, long straight horns, and with a smooth slashing trot, a 

 herd dashing past may well be likened, as Shortridge has done, to 

 a troop of lancers. The South African forms, though in no actual 

 danger of over-reduction, are nevertheless included here since their 

 range and numbers have become of late decades considerably re- 

 stricted. 



Essentially a desert animal, its habitat was limited mainly to the 

 more arid regions in South Africa, including the karoo and central 

 plains of Cape Colony. As late as about 1843, Gordon Gumming 

 shot many in what are now the Philipstown and Hopetown districts, 

 on the north karoos of the Colony. "Somewhat before that date," 

 says Bryden (1899, p. 383)- 



it was found yet farther south, on the Great Karroo itself, in the very heart 

 of the Colony. All through the Kalahari, in Great Namaqualand, Damaraland, 

 and the more desert parts of Bechuanaland, in the western part of Mata- 

 beleland as far as the Ramokwebani River, from thence westward as far as 

 the Mababi veldt towards Lake Ngami along the Botletli River, and north- 

 ward through Khama's country, well up towards the Zambesi, the range of 

 the gemsbuck may be said to have once extended. At the present time [i. e., 

 forty-six years ago] it is still to be found sparingly in most of these localities, 

 but it is to be noted that in the Cape Colony it has been driven for years 

 by the tide of civilization more and more northwestward, until ... it is 

 only to be found, south of the Orange River, in the dry waterless wastes 

 of the region known as Bushmanland. Here ... it is still occasionally to be 

 found in small troops. In the heart of the Kalahari the gemsbuck is one 

 of the commonest of the game animals, and ranges freely in large troops 

 in those desert regions. . . . The flesh of the gemsbuck is very good, and its 

 skin, which is remarkably tough and strong, is in great demand for making 

 riems raw-hide thongs and whip-lashes. 



In the 46 years that have elapsed since Bryden's account, the 

 general aspects of the picture seem to have changed but little. South 

 of the Orange River, now its southern outpost, "there are a few head 

 left in the Richtersveld, close to the mouth of that river" (Shortridge, 

 in litt., 1937). In Bechuanaland "the Kalahari Park was specially 

 created as a reserve for gemsbok, where they may be seen to-day in 

 thousands. The Park itself is situated about 250 miles north of 

 Upington. At present there is one European ranger. Water holes 

 have been sunk at various points in this park. Fringing the borders 

 of it are quite a few herds in existence, but again it is impossible to 

 give approximate numbers." (1932 official memo.) In Southern 

 Rhodesia, the northern limit of their range, "the only place where 

 they exist is in the Wankie Game Reserve, . . . which should con- 

 serve a few head in any case" (letter of International Office, 1933) . 



