AFTER ORYX AND ELAND— BARINGO 89 



Of the many splendid forms that Nature has designed 

 for African antelopes, none surpass that of the oryx. 

 Strength and grace combine in every line. A massive 

 chest and upright neck, deep, yet tapering to the throat, 

 are completed by a beautifully-proportioned barrel and 

 strong though slightly sloping quarters. It is in this 

 latter respect that the hartebeest group fall away, the 

 exaggerated slope giving them — one is loth to apply a 

 disparaging epithet to such fine game — almost an un- 



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ORYX. 



gainly appearance. Of the former type none but the 

 superb sable really compares on equal terms with the 

 oryx, and the roan comes second to this pair. The 

 waterbuck, it is true, idealises massive elegance, but his 

 type is different. His are rather the four-square lines 

 of a red deer on a grander scale. 



My prize carried horns of 31 j ins., with a basal 

 circumference of just under 7 ins. His hide was scarred 

 with wounds from a score of fights, and from the skin 

 of his neck, which was near 2 ins. thick (thus difi"ering 

 from that of the cow, which was cpite thin-skinned), I 

 cut an imbedded bullet of some previous hunter. The 

 weio-ht of this oryx bull we estimated at 450 lbs., the 

 female about 400 lbs. Returning towards camp — and 



