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.! 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. Idid not want any of them, and turned 
_ waggonwards, rather disappointed at not getting ivory, but 
ea satisfied with the sight my ride had given me. 
4 _ Inthe 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 abot. 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 
eR ANOS g Me eM aos Nee Gemeente pea ge MAM 
a 1 ask ap a : i. Fee 
_ + 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 
}_ bave 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 seine 
4 7 and heated atmosphere most wonderfully. 
1. K 
