ANTELOPES. 



2 99 



gazelle. When we pass back to the Pleistocene period, the saiga had a much more 

 extensive range to the westward, its fossilised remains having been obtained from 

 the caverns and superficial deposits of Hungary, Belgium, and the south of France. 

 Moreover, from the frontlet of a male having been discovered in the gravels of 

 Twickenham, it is evident that the animal occasionally wandered as far as Britain. 

 In Moravia there have been found the remains of a saiga differing from the living 

 species by having six, in place of five, lower cheek-teeth. From the occurrence of 

 saiga remains, together with those of other mammals now characteristic of the 

 steppes, in Western Europe, it has been inferred that steppe-like conditions and 

 climate must formerly have prevailed over portions of that area. 



PALAS. 



Genus ^Epyceros. 



The South African antelope, known by the name of pala or impala (^Epyceros 

 melampus), is a rather large animal, standing a little over 3 feet in height, and 

 of a dark-red colour above, gradually shading into white below. There is no gland 

 on the face below the eye ; and the feet are distinguished 

 by the total absence of the lateral hoofs. The horns of 

 the males are lyrate, widely divergent, and somewhat 

 spiral, with about a dozen complete and widely-separated 

 rings. The ordinary length of pala horns does not 

 exceed 16 inches; but Mr. Selous records specimens of 

 20 and 21 inches, measured in a straight line. The pala 

 is found throughout Southern and South-Eastern Africa. 

 Mr. Selous states that these antelopes are nowhere more 

 plentiful than along the Chobi, and may often be seen 

 in herds of from twenty to one hundred together. " There 

 are very few males in comparison with the number of 

 females, though I have sometimes seen a herd composed 

 entirely of rams, ten or fifteen in number. They are HEAD OF PALA ._ After Selous . 

 like thick corn along the river's bank, and are seldom 



seen at a distance of more than a mile from water ; and there is no more certain 

 sign of the proximity of water than the presence of impala antelopes." In 

 Nyasaland, Mr. Crawshay states that they frequent sandy plains covered with 

 mimosas and low scrub near the rivers. The same writer observes that " no 

 antelope I have seen can compare with the impala in fleetness of foot, and cer- 

 tainly no other can display such wonderful leaping power ; they go off like the 

 proverbial arrow from the bow, and, with most beautiful gliding bounds, cover 

 the ground, without apparently the least effort. When alarmed they often give 

 utterance to a sharp bark." From its red colour, the pala is known to the Dutch 

 Boers as the roybok. 



Gordon Gumming relates that on one occasion near his camp " a loud rushing 

 noise was heard coming on like a hurricane ; this was a large troop of pala pursued 

 by a pack of about twenty wild dogs. They passed our camp in fine style within 



