ANTELOPES 127 



portion of the area, as was the case in Zululand until the 

 Natal Government took the matter up, the animals have 

 been systematically destroyed by the natives for many 

 years. As there is a considerable demand for the horns 

 of the males in LourenO Marques, despite some nominal 

 protection, which in no way affects the native hunter, 

 it seems very probable that the next few years will see 

 the extinction of the species in Portuguese East Africa 

 south of Delagoa Bay. 



The inyala is next met with at a point nearly 200 miles 

 north of the Umpeluzi, in the Portuguese provinces of 

 Gazaland and Inhambane, not far from the 24th parallel 

 of south latitude. Here conditions are much as they 

 are in the Maputa district, and the animals are far from 

 being numerous. It was believed, until quite recently, 

 that from this point there extended a gap of great extent, 

 in fact that no more inyala existed south of the Zambezi ; 

 but in 1908 Major Statham, quite accidentally, discovered 

 the species on the Inyamapuzi River in Gorongoza, north 

 of Beira, and secured some specimens. The antelope 

 next appears across the Zambezi, in British Nyasaland, 

 and this appears to be the most northerly point which 

 it reaches. Probably within the next few years the 

 inyala will have ceased to exist except at its present most 

 northerly and most southerly limits. 



In the strip of the dense bush which forms the head- 

 quarters of the species in Zululand the animals are very 

 numerous, and beyond it they spread on the Zululand 

 side over an area of, perhaps, 200 square miles, at the 

 rate of one or two to the square mile. Beyond these 

 limits there is no tendency to stray. In spite of the fact 

 that they are to a great extent free from the attacks of 

 natural enemies, while poaching does not go on to any 

 alarming extent, there has been no notable increase in 



