ANTELOPE* 101 



merly attributed to it, caused it to be estimated at an 

 enormous value. Some bezoars have been sold as 

 high as 2001. Experience, however, has discovered, 

 that its virtues are only imaginary, and this once-ce- 

 lebrated medicine k no longer used in countries where 

 the study of nature has dispelled the mists of igno- 

 rance. 



These descriptions of the principal distinctions of 

 the gazelle, or antelope kind, are taken from that 

 accurate and indefatigable investigator of nature, Dr. 

 Spa i- man, who, from his residence at the Cape, and 

 his active researches, was especially qualified to in- 

 form us of the nature and qualities of the animals in 

 the southern parts of Africa. He mentions a number 

 of other varieties of the antelope, without entering 

 into any details of their characteristics or qualities. 

 Indeed, the most laborious naturalist must leave some- 

 thing imperfect. The beauties of the creation, both 

 in the conformation of animals and the disposition of 

 in nimaia matter, are innumerable, and the ever-va- 

 rying forms of nature battle discrimination and exhaust 

 description. 



Other naturalists have added descriptions of the 

 other animals 01' the antelope kind, which have been 

 described by naturalists ; it will, in this compendium, 

 suiiice to mention the names, as the reebok, tiie grys- 

 bok, the Klip springer, the gnu, the steenbok, ,.nd the 

 nanguer. We shall only, remark, that 



THE COMM'JX XNi'ELOPE, 



Which abounds in ail the northern parts of Africa, 

 is somewhat less than the fallow deer ; that its horns, 

 which are remarkable for a beautiful double flexion, 

 are about fifteen inches long, and surrounded w.th 

 prominent rings almost to the top, where they are 

 about a foot distant from point to point, and that its 

 colour is brown, mingled with red on the backhand 

 white on the belly and inside of the thighs. The 

 Barbary antelope, which is also very common, not 

 only in the northern parts of Africa, but also in Syria 

 and Mesopotamia, seems only to be a variety of ti^e 

 3 



