LATER VISITS TO SOUTH AFRICA 129 



We pressed on as quickly as possible to the open park-like 

 country of which I could now and again get glimpses, fearing 

 that the shot might have disturbed the rest of the herd if they 

 were within hearing. But I need not have troubled myself, for 

 as I got clear of the bush I came upon at least 400 elephants 

 standing drowsily in the shade of the detached clumps of 

 mimosa-trees. 1 Such a sight I had never seen before and 

 never saw again. As far as the eye could reach, in a fairly 

 open country, there was nothing but elephants. I do not mean 

 in serried masses, but in small separate groups. Lying on 

 the pony's neck I wormed in and out looking for the bulls 

 whose spoor we had been following, and while doing so was 

 charged by a very tall, long-legged, ugly beast, who would 

 take no denial, and I was obliged to kill him. He was the 

 bull, but, alas ! he was without tusks, and probably being 

 defenceless had been driven from the bull herd and taken 

 up with the cows. I did not want any of them, and turned 

 waggonwards, rather disappointed at not getting ivory, but 

 well satisfied with the sight my ride had given me. 



In the evening a straight-horned gemsbok (Oryx capensis} 

 coming up from the river passed near the camp ; her horns 

 struck me as unusually long, and with some of the dogs I 

 gave chase on foot ; she moved very slowly, soon stood to bay, 

 and dropped to the shot. She was evidently very old and worn 

 out. I introduce her to air a theory. 



In many of the Bushman caves the head of the oryx is 

 scratched in profile, and in that position one horn hides the 

 other entirely. In Syria, even up to the present day, I am 

 told, a very near relation of the Oryx capensis is found ; it is 

 the habit of man in his hunting stage to try his hand at 

 delineating the animals he lives upon. Probably the rocks or 

 caves of Syria may show, or formerly may have shown, glyphs 



1 Here, again, my description must have been defective, and Mr. Wolf had 

 not then been introduced to Jumbo, or the forelegs of the elephants would 

 have been longer, the backs more sloping, the ears larger, and the facial angle 

 less ; but it is a beautiful piece of drawing and reproduces the surroundings 

 and heated atmosphere most wonderfully. 



I. K 



