SPRINGBOK. 197 



more preparation than does a loon, cormorant, or 

 shag before going under water. 



The meerkat is to South Africa what the prairie 

 dog is to the North American continent. There is 

 also a further curious similarity between them 

 these animals of the old and new world ; their 

 burrows seem to be the favourite haunt or trysting- 

 place of snakes and diminutive owls. Through this 

 specimen of quadrumana having been first brought 

 to the attention of European zoologists by the well- 

 known traveller, Le Vaillant, it has received its 

 specific title, Cynictis Levaillantii. 



But, slow as my pace had been for the last half- 

 hour, I had by that time reached the sky-line of the 

 hills, and before me extended a great stretch of not 

 inviting country, for it was flat almost as a bowling- 

 green, sparsely supplied with bush or grass, and 

 totally destitute of trees, while the surface in many 

 places, was cut up with huge sand-cracks or dongas, 

 some of these rifts being large enough for a small 

 army to find shelter in. But, scant as herbage ap- 

 peared on this unattractive landscape, numerous 

 springbok found here an abundance of subsistence. 

 Even at the elevation I had gained, so slight was 

 the breeze, that it was only by tossing dry grass into 

 the air that I ascertained in which way the currents 

 of air were moving. As I wanted meat, and a couple 

 of springbok would exactly fulfil my requirements, I 

 resolved upon a stalk ; and, to make success doubly 



