HABITAT OF THE BLESBOK 159 



the inheritance of the black wildebeest, the springbok, 

 and the blesbok, but more particularly of the latter, 

 occupies a central position, as it were, in Southern 

 Africa. On the west of my present encampment, as far 

 as the shores of the South Atlantic Ocean, no blesboks are 

 to be found. Neither do they extend to the northward 

 of the latitude of the River Molopo, in 25° 30', of which 

 I shall at a future period make mention, although their 

 herds frequent the plains along its southern bank. To 

 the south a few small herds are still to be found with- 

 in the colony, but their head-quarters are to the north- 

 ward of the Orange River, whence they extend in an 

 easterly direction throughout all the vast plains situa- 

 ted to the west of the Witbergen range. 



The blesbok, in his manners and habits, very much 

 resembles the springbok, which, however, it greatly ex- 

 ceeds in size, being as large as an English fallow-deer. 

 It is one of the true antelopes, and all its movements 

 and paces partake of the grace and elegance peculiar 

 to that species. Its color is similar to that of the sas- 

 sayby, its skin being beautifully painted with every 

 shade of purple, violet, and brown. Its belly is of the 

 purest white, and a broad white band, or " blaze," 

 adorns the entire length of its face. Blesboks differ 

 from springboks in the determined and invariable man- 

 ner in which they scour the plains, right in the wind's 

 eye, and also in the manner in which they carry their 

 noses close along the ground. Throughout tiie greater 

 part of the year they are very wary and difficult of ap- 

 proach, but more especially when the does have young 

 ones. At that season, when one herd is disturbed, and 

 takes away up the wind, every other herd in view fol- 

 lows them ; and the alarm extending for miles and miles 

 down the wind, to endless herds br^yond the visi'in of 



