CHAPTER XXIX. 



BUFFALO AND ANTELOPES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



AFTER treating of Behemoth, I suppose buffalo and 

 antelopes must be classed as small game, although the 

 Buffalo is represented as a larger animal than our Bison, 

 and the Eland, which is classed as an antelope, " not 

 unfrequently attains the height of nineteen hands, and 

 weighing two thousand pounds !" Tolerable specimens these 

 of small game for any country ! but we have to admit that 

 all things are comparative, and where the giraffe of nineteen 

 feet is the standard in height and the elephant of bulk, the 

 processes in dimuendo must necessarily be slow. 



This South African is undoubtedly the true ^Buffalo, and 

 is in some respects individually a more formidable animal 

 than that known by the same name upon our plains. Harris 

 speaks of a specimen of the African buffalo slain by him, 

 standing sixteen hands and a half at the shoulder ; his 

 ponderous horns, measuring four feet from tip to tip, liko a 

 mass of rock, overshadowing his small, sinister, gray eyes, 

 imparting a cunning gloom and vindictive expression to its 

 head, which was of such weight that one powerful man could 

 with difficulty lift it into the wagon ; Gumming, however, 

 surpasses him, as usual, since it required the utmost strength 

 of two men to lift the head of a similar monster he slew ! 

 He says 



I ordered the Bechuanas to release the dogs ; and spurring 

 Colesberg, which I rode for the first time since the affair 

 with the lioness, I gave chase. The buffaloes crossed the 



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