248 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. VIII. 



no use to me. Every time I discharged my piece at 

 these antelopes, all their rumps, immediately, and at the 

 same moment, became white ; and those thousands of 

 red hacks flying before me formed, as it were, one sheet 

 of snow, which seemed displayed, only to disappear 

 again in an instant." It is difficult, as our author well 

 observes, to account for " the prodigious multiplication 

 of these antelopes in a country so infested with carni- 

 vorous animals as the whole of Southern Africa. I 

 had," he says, " in other places, met a few of their 

 numerous flocks ; but when I beheld this, I often 

 wondered how so many thousands of animals which, 

 by their number, must have dried up the streams and 

 consumed the pasturage of a whole district could 

 live in a place so barren and destitute of water. But 

 though antelopes, as well as goats, have not the same 

 need of drink as other animals, they, doubtless, in- 

 habit more fertile cantons, and there were such in the 

 neighbourhood. In short, to give my readers an idea 

 how numerous this herd was, I shall only say that, 

 notwithstanding the rapidity of its course, it employed 

 three whole hours in passing the spot where ,1 was 

 stationed." 



(264.) The antelopes and ruminating quadrupeds 



of America appear also to assemble in very large num- 



