THE SPRINGBOK. 409 



towards the Sahara, he constantly falls in with new antelopes, 

 and many unknown to the naturalist no doubt still roam in 

 the undiscovered interior of the continent. 



With the exception of the ox or cow-like species, such as the 

 Eland, whose clumsier proportions and heavier gait remind 

 one of our domestic cattle, tlie antelopes generally resemble 

 the deer tribe by their elegant forms, their restless and timid 

 disposition, and their proverbial swiftness. Their horns, what- 

 ever shape they assume, are round and annulated ; in some 

 species straight, in others curved and spiral ; in some the 

 females have no horns, in others they are common to both 

 sexes. They all possess a most delicate sense of smell, and 

 their eyes are proverbially bright and beaming. Their skin 

 generally emits a delicious odour of the grass and wild herbs 

 on which they feed, and some have betw^een their hoofs a gland 

 from which issues a secretion of an agreeable perfume. 



Africa appears to be their great nursery, but many kinds are 

 natives of Asia, while Europe has but two species, — the well- 

 known Chamois of the Alps and the Saiga of the Eussian 

 steppes, — and the New World only one- 

 Few of the numerous African 

 antelopes are more entitled to our 

 notice than the graceful Springbok 

 {A, enchora), which has earned its 

 name from the surprising and almost 

 perpendicular leaps it makes when 

 started. It bounds to the height 

 of ten or twelve feet with the elas- 

 ticity of an India-rubber ball, clear- 

 ing at each spring from twelve to 

 fifteen feet of ground, without apparently the slighest exertion. 

 In performing this astonishing leap it appears for an instant as 

 if suspended in the air, when down come all four feet again 

 together, and striking the plain, away it soars again, as if about 

 to take flight. 



From the vast wilds in the interior of South Africa, when 

 a prolonged drought has exhausted the last pools or watercourses, 



I the springboks migrate in such incredible multitudes towards 

 the fertile cultivated districts, that they have been well com- 

 — 



SPBIXGBOK 



