146 LARGE GAME. chap. hi. 



so far that I believe that a calf that is striped at birth 

 will to some extent retain the marks when grown up, 

 though some people maintain the contrary, and point to 

 the fact of the unstriped cows having calves with stripes, 

 which, they say, will gradually die away as the animal 

 grows older, and at last entirely disappear. My ex- 

 planation of it is simply that the two varieties inter- 

 breed, and the result is a striped calf, while the irregu- 

 larity, and often extreme faintness of the markings when 

 the animal has attained its full size, would seem to 

 favour some such theory. 



The common kind exactly resembles the other, ex- 

 cept in wanting the markings, and being, if anything, 

 of a darker colour, as well as being decidedly their 

 inferior in size ; the great striped cows rivalling the 

 young bulls of the other variety in their immense pro- 

 portions. Their weight is wonderful, averaging between 

 800 lbs. and 1100 lbs., while the old blue bulls reach to 

 1400 lbs. or 1500 lbs. 



On two different occasions, besides the one I have 

 mentioned, I have had good days on foot with eland. 

 The first time I accidentally, and quite unexpectedly, 

 fell in with a great herd while I was chasing some gnu ; 

 one of which I had wounded but at once resigned on 

 seeing the rarer game. I had not noticed them in time 

 to attempt any concealment, but as, like all game when 

 in large herds, they were slow to start, and kept pulling 

 up in small parties of a dozen or more to look back, I 

 had time to run in and fire four barrels before they 

 closed into one mass and went away. Only one, a cow, 

 fell, though one or two more were evidently hard hit, and 



