48 THE SELOUS COLLECTION. 



shoot one in 1874 which was standing on the very brink of the 

 precipice. This, however, is the only one I have ever seen to the 

 east of Umparira, though I have been several times backwards and 

 forwards along the river's bank between that place and the 

 Victoria Falls since. Along the Upper Zambesi from Sesheke to 

 the Baroutse Valley the natives report them common. Why the 

 Pookoo does not extend its range further westwards along the 

 southern bank of the Chobe I am at a loss to understand, as there 

 does not appear to be any change in the character of the country 

 or vegetation to account for it." 



Further information is given by Selous in his account of the 

 Puku in " The Great and Small Game of Africa " * : " In 1877 I 

 visited the Chobi River a second time, and hunted for several 

 months along its southern bank, but although this was only three 

 years after my first visit, when I found pookoo antelopes so 

 numerous, these animals had already become excessively scarce ; in 

 fact, had almost ceased to exist. The extermination of the pookoo 

 in this part of Africa was due to a political convulsion amongst 

 the Barotsi tribe on the Upper Zambesi, as, during the year 1876, 

 shortly after the assassination of Sipopo, the chief of the Barotsi, 

 large numbers of natives fled from their homes on the Zambesi, 

 crossed the swamps of the Chobi, and camped all along the 



southern bank of that river, just in the pookoo ground 



During this period of persecution no pookoos moved either farther 

 westwards along the Chobi, or eastwards along the Zambesi towards 

 the Victoria Falls, for although I found a few of these antelopes 

 still surviving in their old haunts in 1877, there were absolutely 

 none either to the east or the west of the small tract of country in 

 which they had been so plentiful in 1874 " 



256 19.7.15.281. 7 July, 1874. South bank of Chobe River, 



near junction with Zambesi. 



257 _19. 7. 15. 282. 12 August, 1874. South bank of Chobe River, 



near junction with Zambesi. 



* p. 295, 1899. 



