712 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Western Sahara. Lydekker and Elaine (1914, vol. 3, p. 149) 

 record two specimens of the first half of the past century as probably 

 from Senegambia. According to Cabrera (1932, p. 328), there is no 

 real evidence of the occurrence of the Addax in Morocco within 

 historical times. 



Algeria and Tunisia. The species appears rather widespread in 

 the Algerian Sahara, but at a certain distance from its northern 

 limits. Its fine horns are rather frequently brought by the Arabs to 

 Laghouat, Bou-Saada, and Biskra, where they are sold to officers and 

 tourists as objects of ornament. (Lataste, 1885, p. 293.) 



Pease (1897, pp. 810-812) writes as follows: 



The Addax . . . visits this district [Bir Aoueen, southern Tunisia] in large 

 quantities in favourable years. The Addax country is the Erg, the great region 

 of sand-dunes covered more or less thickly with vegetation according to 

 situation and rains. This sand-dune country covers hundreds it may me 

 said thousands of miles and the Addax follows the rains. ... In one year 

 the Addax are only found far south of Rhadamis and Ain Taiba (S. of Ouargla), 

 in other years they follow the rain as far north as the southern borders of 

 the Chott Djereed in the east and the neighbourhood of Ai'n Taiba in the 

 west. . . . 



The Chambas who have firearms shoot a great many of these Antelopes 



The Touaregs hunt the Begra el Ouash [Addax] . . . with Sloughia (Grey- 

 hounds . . . ). The sloughia bring it quickly to bay, and the men go in and 

 spear it. 



Geyr von Schweppenburg (1917, pp. 251-295) reports small num- 

 bers of Addax at various points west and south of Temassinin, in 

 the southern territories of Algeria. 



Half a century ago the Addax ranged over the entire Sahara, but 

 its retrogression before man is considerable. Today it practically 

 exists no more in the Algerian Sahara, unless in the south of the Erg 

 Oriental. The same statement applies to the north of the Libyan 

 Erg. To find the Addax in numerous herds, one must go to the 

 southern or western Sahara (beyond the central massifs and the 

 Saura) . It lives not only in the Ergs, but also in the Regs and on the 

 plateaus. (Heim de Balsac, 1936, pp. 177-178.) 



"The Addax ... is still to be found in the inland desert country 

 of the south of the Regency [of Tunisia], although of late years, 

 even in these remote and uninhabited districts, its numbers seem to 

 have diminished considerably. . . . The meat of this animal, it 

 appears, is much esteemed by the Arabs as food, while the hides are 

 still more highly prized for the purpose of making the soles of shoes 

 and sandals." (J. S. Whitaker, in Sclater and Thomas, 1899, vol. 4, 

 pp. 83-84.) 



In Tunisia the Addax is now confined to the Erg, south of a line 

 passing approximately by Berresof and Bir-Aouine. It is a normal 



