Chap. XXX.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 267 



In the total absence of materials for the construc- 

 tion of a pound, the cattle became so restless during 

 the night, that we were glad to resume our journey 

 two hours before dawn. Numerous hartebeests and 

 quaggas were disturbed by our advance ; and the 

 white-tailed gnoo, which now occurred for the first 

 time since passing Kuruman, startled at the ap- 

 proach of our waggons, was again bellowing, stamp- 

 ing, and tossing its eccentric head. As the day 

 broke, boundless meads kept extending to the eye, 

 covered with luxuriant herbage, and enamelled with 

 rich parterres of brilliant flowers. These were 

 animated by droves of portly elands, moving in 

 long procession across the silent and treeless land- 

 scape. The rank odour of these animals, resem- 

 bling the exhalation from a cattle close, could be 

 winded from a great distance ; and it is a singular 

 fact that their bodies are infested by the ticks and 

 parasitic flies commonly found in such places. 



Pursuing a herd of many hundred elands, which 

 literally resembled a vast drove of stall-fed oxen, 

 we were joined in the chase by the prettily-striped 

 foal of a quagga, which neighed and frisked by the 

 side of our horses for a considerable time, before it 

 discovered its mistake. The lighter-bodied cows 

 skipped nimbly over each other's heads, while tPieir 

 unweildy lords laboured in the rear, their sleek sides 

 shaking with fat, and frothing with perspiration. 

 Two minutes were sufficient to reduce them all to a 

 walk, and although some turned in desperation upon 

 their pursuers, these enormous creatures are so 



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