TRUE ANTELOPES ; SPRING-BOK, GAZELLE. 



297 



graceful and beautiful species of this group, is the Spring-bok of 



Southern Africa ; 

 which derives its 

 name from its sin- 

 gular habit of leap- 

 ing perpendicularly, 

 when alarmed, or 

 as it scours the 

 plain, to the height 

 of several feet. This 

 animal lives in large 

 herds, which spread 



FIG. 151. SPRING-BOK ANTELOPE. themselves OVCr the 



extensive plains 



that occupy a large part of the interior of that country. The 

 karroos (as these vast wilds are called) are subject to seasons of 

 drought, in which the pasturage is completely dried up ; and 

 the Spring-boks, driven to change their quarters, literally inun- 

 date the fertile cultivated districts, over which swarm after 

 swarm passes, like wave after wave, destroying the hopes of the 

 colonists. When the rains begin to fall, the horde, thinned by 

 the attacks of man and beast, begins to return to the interior ; 

 and, in a few days, the whole disappear. Mr. Pringle mentions 

 that some of these migratory swarms with which he fell in, 

 whitened, or rather specked, the country, as far as the eye could 

 reach ; and he estimates the numbers at one time in view, at not 

 less than 25,000 or 30,000. To the group of true Antelopes 

 also belongs the Gazelle, so celebrated among the poetical writers 

 of the East. This very beautiful species inhabits Arabia and 

 Syria, where it is seen in large herds, bounding over the desert 

 with amazing fleetness, and seeming to skim along the level plain 

 almost without touching it. It is usually hunted with the 

 assistance of falcons, which fly at its head and thus check its 

 speed, giving time for the dogs to come up, the swiftest grey- 

 hound being completely distanced by it. It is also captured by 

 stratagem ; an inclosure being prepared near a rivulet or spring 

 to which the Gazelles resort to drink ; and the herd on its approach 



