THE SPRINGBOK. 483 



herd which he estimated to consist of about two thousand 

 head; and Pringle says that, on one occasion, as many as 

 twenty-five or thirty thousand were estimated, by a good judge 

 of such matters, to be scattered over the plains near the Little 

 Fish River, and that they literally speckled the face of the 

 country as far as the eye could see. When a herd are moving 

 at leisure or grazing, they walk and trot like other antelopes, 

 or like common deer ; but occasionally those in the rear remove 

 to the front by bounding over the backs of the others. This 

 system of changing places is observable in all gregarious 

 animals, though more conspicuous in this instance. When 

 a herd of kine or a flock of sheep are grazing along a pasture, 

 those leading the way get the best of the repast, and soon 

 becoming tolerably satiated they proceed but slowly j in short, 

 they loiter, and then it is that the hindmost, dissatisfied with 

 the trodden- down leavings of their leaders, and feeling hungry, 

 avail themselves of the opportunity to get into the front rank. 

 Thus the springboks proceed alternately, occupying the front 

 and being left in the rear. " When pursued, or hastening their 

 pace," says Burchell, " they frequently take their extraordinary 

 bounds, rising with curved or elevated backs high into the air, 

 generally to the height of eight feet, and appearing as if about 

 to take flight. In crossing a beaten road, although it be quite 

 smooth and even with the plain, the greater number clear it 

 by one of their flying leaps 5 being seemingly afraid of a snare, 

 or distrustful of the ground on which man has trodden."* 



In the extensive uninhabited plains between the Orange River 

 and the Cape Colony, the springboks multiply undisturbed by 

 the hunter (except when occasionally the Bosjesman kills a few 

 with his poisoned arrows), and the country literally swarms with 

 them, until a long drought, which occurs perhaps once in four 

 or five years, drys up the stagnant pools and natural reservoirs 

 of brackish water. Then, the want of water is so severely felt by 

 these animals, that incalculable myriads of them migrate from 

 their haunts, and press forward, like a dense mass of life, to 



* Travels in Southern Africa, vol. ii. p. 109. 



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