HUNTING IN THE MOUNTAINS 



Anyone who has brought down a klipspringer will 

 not regret his trouble. The excellent flesh of his 

 victim will afford him the finest food, while its skin, 

 when properly dressed, will make an excellent rug. 

 Given the extreme agility of this species of antelope, 

 the places it inhabits, and its extreme wariness when 

 disturbed, one would be tempted to think that except 

 for man, the universal destroyer of the animal king- 

 dom, it need fear no enemy. This is a mistake. The 

 klipspringer has to guard against two adversaries, 

 which force it to be on the watch day and night. 



The mountain-eagle wages deadly war against it. 

 Should the eye of the bird discern one of these ante- 

 lopes asleep, the bird seeks assistance and returns 

 with one or two of its companions, when they all 

 fall upon their unhappy victim, which they try to 

 blind. If they attain their object, the creature is at 

 their mercy, being no longer able to defend itself, 

 when the sharp beaks and strong pointed talons soon 

 finish the work. In the night the leopard glides 

 stealthily among the chaos of quartz rocks, so favour- 

 able for ambuscades, and from thence springs unawares 

 on the startled antelope, which it seizes by the throat. 1 



1 The klipspringer has a great many names. In Manica and Goron- 

 goza it is known as the gururu. In Lower Zambesia the natives of the 

 Morumbala mountains call it the manimo. Among the people of 

 Upper Zambesia and the Barotse, it is termed the m'barare. The 

 Boers of the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, as well as the 

 Afrikanders of the Cape, named it the klipspringer (rock-jumper) in 

 the beginning of last century. The scientific name is Oreotragus 

 saltator. 



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