AFRICAN SMALL GAME. 609 



But the only South African animal which at all approxi- 

 mates in its habits the prodigious migratory movements of 

 our bison, is a beautiful antelope of the smaller species, 

 ailed by the Dutch Boers the Springbok. Gumming thus 

 describes his first sight of the migrations of the springbok 



A person anxious to kill many springboks might have 

 bagged thirty or forty that morning. I never, in all my 

 subsequent career, fell in with so dense a herd of antelopes, 

 nor found them allow me to ride so near them. Having 

 inspanned, we proceeded with the wagons to take up the 

 fallen game. Vast and surprising as was the herd of spring- 

 boks which I had that morning witnessed, it was infinitely 

 supassed by what I beheld on the march from my vley to 

 old Sweir's camp ; for, on our clearing the low range of hills 

 through which the springboks had been pouring, I beheld 

 the boundless plains, and even the hill sides which stretched 

 away on every side of me, thickly covered, not with " herds," 

 but with "one vast herd" of springboks; far as the eye could 

 strain the landscape was alive with them, until they softened 

 down into a red mass of living creatures. 



To endeavor to form any idea of the amount of antelopes 

 which I that day beheld, were vain ; but I have, nevertheless, 

 no hesitation in stating that some hundreds of thousands of 

 springboks were that morning within the compass of my 

 vision. Old Sweirs acknowledged that it was a very fair 

 " trek-bokken," but observed that it was not many when 

 compared with what he had seen. "You, this morning," 

 he remarked, " behold only one flat covered with spring- 

 boks, but I give you my word that I have ridden a long 

 day's journey over a succession of flats covered with them, as 

 far as I could see, as thick as sheep standing in a fold." 



My limits press upon me so, that, with regret, I take 

 leave of the antelopes, the most brilliant and interesting of 

 the groups of African game, with a parting glimpse of the 



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