WILD ANIMALS OF THE EASTERN SUDAN 57 



the commonest animal in the country. I first saw it 

 two or three marches out of Sinkat on the Kassala 

 road, but the herds in the Nubian desert were very 

 wary, and not very plentiful. On the Atbara also, 

 between Fasher and Sofi, it was a rare animal; 

 but throughout the Settit it was very abundant, 

 and on the Rahad, from a march or two above 

 Hawata to the Abyssinian border, the ariel were to 

 be numbered only by thousands, and their presence 

 obviously accounted for the number of lions. There 

 were large herds on the Galegu and Binder, but not 

 many of them, and on the Blue Nile I did not see a 

 single specimen. They were easy to stalk when 

 drinking, which they did at any time from 9 a.m. or 

 so up to noon. It requires a little care to distinguish 

 males from females, but the horns of the former 

 are thicker and more regularly curved inwards. The 

 average weight is 100 Ib. 



Heuglin's gazelle is found in the neighbourhood 

 of Kassala, on the Atbara from Fasher to Sofi, and 

 throughout the entire course of the Settit. It is never 

 very numerous, and does not occur in herds, but can- 

 not be called a rare animal. It never seems to travel 

 far from water, and spends a great deal of its time 

 in the river-bed itself, where it can easily be stalked. 

 At other times it is decidedly cute, though the broken 

 ground that it affects is in favour of the hunter. 

 The drinking-time is much the same as for ariel, but 



