xxn ANTELOPES 283 



like beef, but they disdain the flesh of antelope. Many 

 settlers esteem eland beef, but it is very much overrate. 1. 

 One enthusiastic writer considers " a cut from the 

 brisket fit for a monarch," but this would of course 

 depend upon the condition of his majesty's appetite. 

 A settler near Lake Elmenteita informed me that a herd 

 of eland crossed his farm twice yearly on the way to the 

 crater of Menengai ; he looked out a fine bull, and after 

 shooting it pickled the flesh for his own consumption 

 and regarded it as beef. 



Many attempts have been made to acclimatise elands 

 in the British Isles : they breed in the Zoological 

 Gardens. In the Kikuyu country I saw a young eland 

 bull running with cattle, and at Njaro an eland bull 

 six months old in a pen with calves. In South Africa 

 the eland is almost extinct, in East Africa the number 

 of this antelope is rapidly diminishing. Elands are found 

 on grass plateaus and in wooded districts, on hills 

 and on plains. 



The Roan and Sable antelopes belong to a genus 

 which has no popular name. Zoologists term them 

 Hippotragince, which may be rendered Horse- Antelopes : 

 it is an apt name. The Roan antelope is a handsome 

 animal standing four feet high at the withers furnished 

 with large gracefully-curved horns. Its colour is a rich 

 dark glossy brown, and there are white stripes on the 

 face : the belly is white, and there are four teats like 

 oxen. The muzzle is hairy and the tail long and tufted. 

 Roan antelopes frequent wooded uplands in herds 

 including ten or twenty individuals. These animals 

 are endowed with great speed and staying powers, and 

 are dangerous to approach when wounded. 



The Oryx is a well-known antelope distinguished by 

 long straight horns which slope backwards, and lie more 

 or less in the plane of the face. Oryx antelopes are 

 found throughout the desert tracts of Africa, generally 

 in herds ; old males sometimes separate from the others. 

 They flourish where vegetation is scanty. The East 



