154 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



after the summer rains, the flesh of a youngish roan 

 antelope is good eating ; that of the older animals is 

 tough and tasteless. 



THE ELAND 



The eland excels in stature and bulk every other 

 antelope, and is, in truth, one of the goodliest of all 

 beasts of chase. Its flesh is delicious, and reminds 

 one of young and tender beef having a gamelike 

 flavour of its own. The elder beasts put on flesh 

 amazingly and carry enormous quantities of internal 

 fat, and the skin is in much request. For these 

 reasons, and especially for the reason that it can be 

 easily ridden down, the eland, once so plentiful all 

 over South Africa, has been sadly reduced in numbers. 

 Fifty or sixty years ago great herds of these animals 

 roamed freely over the plains of the Orange Free 

 State, the Transvaal, and Lower Bechuanaland. From 

 these countries, as from Cape Colony, they have been 

 long since exterminated, and even in Mashonaland, 

 where, no great while since, they were plentiful, they 

 have been terribly thinned out. The eland is, how- 

 ever, one of the desert-loving species, and can exist 

 for months together without drinking. In the water- 

 less recesses of the Northern Kalahari it still finds 

 sanctuary, and is likely to do so for some years longer. 

 In this country large herds of these magnificent 

 antelope still range freely, and although the Bakwena 

 and Bamangwato natives make annual hunting expe- 

 ditions into the desert, for the purpose of bringing 



