26 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



the parched desolation of the landscape bore witness; nev- 

 ertheless there were two or three showers that afternoon. 

 We soon began to see game, but the flatness of the country 

 and the absence of all cover made stalking a matter of diffi- 

 culty; the only bushes were a few sparsely scattered mimo- 

 sas; stunted things, two or three feet high, scantily leaved, 

 but abounding in bulbous swellings on the twigs, and in 

 long, sharp spikes of thorns. There were herds of harte- 

 beest and wildebeest, and smaller parties of beautiful ga- 

 zelles. The last were of two kinds, named severally after 

 their discoverers, the explorers Grant and Thomson; many 

 of the creatures of this region commemorate the men 

 Schilling, Jackson, Neuman, Kirke, Chanler, Abbot 

 who first saw and hunted them and brought them to the 

 notice of the scientific world. The Thomson's gazelles, or 

 Tommies as they are always locally called, are pretty, alert 

 little things, half the size of our prongbuck; their big 

 brothers, the Grant's, are among the most beautiful of 

 all antelopes, being rather larger than a whitetail deer, 

 with singularly graceful carriage, while the old bucks carry 

 long lyre-shaped horns. 



Distances are deceptive on the bare plains under the 

 African sunlight. I saw a fine Grant, and stalked him in 

 a rain squall; but the bullets from the little Springfield 

 fell short as he raced away to safety; I had underestimated 

 the range. Then I shot, for the table, a good buck of the 

 smaller gazelle, at two hundred and twenty-five yards; the 

 bullet went a little high, breaking his back above the 

 shoulders. 



But what I really wanted were two good specimens, bull 

 and cow, of the wildebeest. These powerful, ungainly 



