With Flashlight and Rifle -* 



stiff bearing. Hut when, hastening our steps, we get quite 

 near to them, they take to flight. They begin by running 

 along the ground, but then, despite their heaviness, they 

 sail through the air on their mighty pinions with surprising 

 lightness, and get quickly into shelter. 



But none of these creatures can arrest me in my march 

 to-day. Only here and there do I delay a few minutes to 

 observe some animal which particularly interests me. Thus 

 my attention is caught now and then by pretty dik-clik 

 antelopes (Madoqna kirki] gathered together by twos 

 or threes. 



After two hours of wandering and the negotiation of a 

 great many steep torrent-beds, often more than thirty-live teet 

 deep, there suddenly appear in the rocky and thorny ground 

 belonging to the hills which fringe the mountain-shelves, 

 two greenish-grey antelopes, whose aspect forms a striking 

 contrast to that of their fellows of the plain. These are 

 the pretty little mountain antelopes, which take the place 

 of the chamois in Africa the klipspringer, called by the 

 Masai " n' gnossoiru." 



The only European form of the antelope the chamois 

 is not found in Africa ; the: beautiful ibex, moreover, 

 has only two representatives in the north of the continent. 

 But widely dispersed over the Dark Continent is the hill- 

 climbing klipspringer, with its curious hard-grained, stiti- 

 haired pelt. 



The klipspringer demands most strenuous stalking from 

 the hunter, and therefore fascinates him. This peculiar 

 animal is found in many phases, and as those brought me 

 from the Masai desert proved to be unknown to science:, 



600 



