THE ANTELOPES AND GAZELLES 187 



the gunner unused to South African conditions will 

 often find it, for some little time, somewhat difficult 

 to bring down his game. I have known even good 

 English rifle shots waste large quantities of cartridges 

 in their earlier attempts at stalking. The buck itself 

 is not a big target. It stands fairly high on its legs 

 about 30 inches at the shoulder but the legs are 

 slender, the body is slight, and the coloration, under 

 the blazing sunlight and the mirage of heated plains, 

 does not lend itself to the gunner's aid. The differ- 

 ence between the marvellously clear ether of South 

 Africa and the heavier atmosphere of Europe and 

 other northern climates is also enormously great. 

 Distances are at first very hard to judge correctly. 

 All these reasons, combined with the fact that the 

 springbuck itself is naturally a shy and wary antelope, 

 render the first essays of the sportsman, new to the 

 country, sufficiently difficult. Practice and experience, 

 however, soon overcome these difficulties, and the 

 newcomer, after no very lengthy apprenticeship, finds 

 himself able to bag his buck with the best of them 

 colonial farmer or rough, primitive Trek-Boer of 

 the interior. In the Old Colony, Transvaal, and 

 Orange River Colony springbuck are often ridden 

 or driven up to by a wide line of sportsmen, who 

 approach them down wind. The buck make ofF 

 up wind, and more or less difficult snapshots are 

 obtained by the gunners. Sometimes the antelope will 

 allow the gunner to approach within 300 yards ; at 

 others a running shot at 100 or even 50 or 60 yards 

 may be obtained. A running springbuck, one of the 



