332 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



The roans were calving in early November; whereas, 

 when we went thirty miles on, at an elevation a thousand 

 feet less, we at first saw no very young fawns accompany- 

 ing the hartebeests, and no very young foals with the 

 zebras. These hartebeests, which are named after their 

 discoverer, Governor Jackson, are totally different from the 

 hartebeests of the Athi and the Sotik countries, and are 

 larger and finer in every way. One bull I shot weighed, 

 in pieces, four hundred and seventy pounds. No allowance 

 was made for the spilt blood, and inasmuch as he had 

 been hallalled, I think his live weight would have been 

 nearly four hundred and ninety pounds. He was a big, 

 full-grown bull, but not of extraordinary size; later I killed 

 much bigger ones, unusually fine specimens, which must have 

 weighed well over five hundred pounds. The horns, which 

 are sometimes two feet long, are set on great bony pedicels, 

 so that the face seems long and homely even for a harte- 

 beest. The first two or three of these hartebeests which I 

 killed were shot at long range, for, like all game, they are 

 sometimes exceedingly wary; but we soon found that 

 normally they were as tame as they were plentiful. We 

 frequently saw them close by the herds of the Boer settlers. 

 They were the common game of the plains. At times of 

 course they were difficult to approach; but again and again, 

 usually when we were riding, we came upon not only in- 

 dividuals but herds, down wind and in plain view, which 

 permitted us to approach to within a hundred yards before 

 they definitely took flight. Their motions look ungainly 

 until they get into their full speed stride. They utter no 

 sound save the usual hartebeest sneeze. 



There were bohor reedbuck also, pretty creatures, about 



