CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 207 



much character in the faces of these antelopes, 

 and it would be difficult to confuse the pied 

 black and white countenance of the gemsbok, 

 the mournful face of the hartebeest, and the 

 fringed forehead of the addax. Naturalists 

 were long exercised by the apparent anomaly 

 of so magnificent an animal as the eland 

 thriving in an all but waterless waste like the 

 Kalahari, which even smaller kinds seemed to 

 avoid. It was Selous who, with his usual 

 genius for getting information out of the natives, 

 who for the most part are either reticent or 

 misleading, found that the Kalahari produces 

 not only water-melons and a bulb that is full 

 of moisture, but also a certain bush, the leaves 

 of which form the eland's favourite food. Even 

 the smallest antelopes, though feeble-looking 

 little creatures, sometimes show wonderful 

 courage and endurance ; and Sir Godfrey 

 Lagden tells me that he has known even the 

 little steenbok and duiker draw hounds away 

 from their young and sacrifice themselves so 

 as to save the family ; and he once saw a 

 mountain rhebok, with one leg broken, get 

 away on the other three, and actually escape 

 from a pack of dogs in hot pursuit. 



The most grotesque of all the antelopes are 

 the gnus, or wildebeests. Of the two kinds, 

 one has a black tail and the other a white. 

 To anyone unfamiliar with their identity they 



