A PROFITABLE HUNTING TRIP. 407 



" we came suddenly in full view of one of the loveliest animals 

 which graces this fair creation. This was an old buck of the sable 

 antelope, the rarest and most beautiful animal in Africa. It was 

 large and powerful, partaking considerably of the nature of the 

 ibex. Its back and sides were of glossy black, beautifully contrast- 

 ing with the belly, w^iich was as white as driven snow. The 

 liorns were upwards of three feet in length, and bend strongly back 

 with a bold sweep, reaching nearly to the haunches." 



The sable lives in herds of no very great size, consisting mostly 

 of ten or twelve does led by a single buck. As a general fact, the 

 buck takes matters very easily, and trusts to the does for keeping a 

 good watch and warning him of the approach of an enemy. Owing 

 to the jealous caution of these female sentinels, the hunter finds 

 himself sadly embarrassed when he wishes to enrich his museum 

 with the horns of their leader, and if any of them should happen to 

 take alarm, the whole herd will bound over the roughest ground 

 with such matchless speed that all pursuit is hopeless. 



THE SABLE ANTELOPE ALSO KNOWN AS POTAQUAINE. 



In the native dialect, the sable antelope is known under the 

 name of Potaquaine. It is very tenacious of life, and will often 

 make good lis escape even though pierced entirely through the body 

 with several bullets. It therefore fully tests all the powders of the 

 hunter, and he who secures a specimen of an old male sable antelope 

 may congratulate himself on possessing one of the noblest trophies 

 of which a sportsman can boast. 



Real, live and rare animals, habitants of the heart of darkest 

 Africa, captured by the party of Theodore Roosevelt, ex-President 

 of the United States and mighty hunter, were on exhibition at 

 the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens. 



The animals are especially rare species, some of them seen 

 in this country for the first time. And not only are they rare, 

 but they are thoroughly representative of that luxuriant and tropi- 

 cal upland section of equatorial Africa. 



Since the days of Roosevelt and ruction at Washington, since 

 those blessed times of the man-with-the-soft-bodv-and-the-hard- 



