THE ANTELOPES AND GAZELLES 14 1 



managed to maintain its ground in South Africa 

 ever since. Even at the present moment some fair 

 troops of these antelopes still linger in the deserts 

 of Great Bushmanland and Namaqualand, in the far 

 north-west of Cape Colony. The gemsbok is one 

 of the most familiar antelopes of the Kalahari, and 

 in the remoter parts of that dry and desert region 

 these animals will probably maintain themselves for 

 many years yet to come. They are still plentiful 

 also in Khama's and Sebeli's country, which includes 

 a large portion of the Northern and Central Kala- 

 hari ; while in Ngamiland, Damaraland, and the 

 Portuguese territory behind Mossamedes and Port 

 Alexander, they are met with in fair numbers. It is 

 self-evident that the gemsbok owes much of its 

 present immunity to its desert-loving habits. Almost 

 absolutely independent of water, it exists for seven 

 or eight months together without drinking. When 

 the rains fall and the desert pans and pools fill up for 

 a few brief weeks, the oryx resorts to water, but at 

 other times it is content to exist without moisture. 

 Like other desert-loving beasts it is a frequenter of the 

 saltpans, and licks the hard white brack ; and occasion- 

 ally it may dig up with its sharp, neat hoofs those 

 moist, turnip-like bulbs, known to the Bechuanas and 

 Bakalahari as sosuma. It devours, too, the wild, 

 bitter water-melons, which now and again cover the 

 desert in vast quantities. 



Although not so large an animal as the eland, 

 koodoo, and sable and roan antelopes, the gemsbok 

 has always seemed to me to be one of the most 



