CHAP. viii. ANECDOTES OF ANTELOPES. 397 



Last, and perhaps most common of all, as well as 

 without doubt the largest and finest of them, is the 

 reed-buck (Eleotragus arundinaceus), males of which not 

 unfrequently weigh thirteen or fourteen stone. Their 

 colour also is grey, though of a lighter tinge than that 

 of the last mentioned, very old cows appearing to be 

 almost white ; the horns, only carried by the males, being 

 slightly curved and placed well back upon the head, and 

 their general appearance being graceful in the extreme, 

 though slightly detracted from in the case of does by the 

 length of their ears, one of the weakest points of the ante- 

 lope genus. They frequent reedy, damp bottoms, where 

 the vegetation is rank, and in summer-time such spots on 

 the hill-sides as afford good shelter and are at the same 

 time dry and cool. Reed-buck shooting is, I consider, 

 the most pleasant of any, without considering the fact 

 that a fat doe of that species is probably the best eating 

 of all the smaller antelopes. The winter season is the 

 best, as the grass being then much burnt off, they princi- 

 pally lie in the bottoms which from their dampness and con- 

 sequent greenness have been able to resist the action of 

 the fire. These bottoms exist in parallel lines between 

 the long undulating ridges which form much of the coast- 

 land of Natal, and average from ten to sixty yards broad. 

 Three men are all that are necessary to beat the ground 

 for two guns, as when the reeds are broad and thick the 

 antelopes lie on the edges on either side, rarely going 

 inside, and with that number I used to go out accom- 

 panied by a friend on almost every day for about six weeks, 

 rarely coming home without one or two head at the least. 

 Our best bag on a single day was five reed-buck, one 



