AFRICAN ANTELOPE 



In the cool of the early mornings, when on the march, 

 I usually walked through the jungle — ^ahead of the string 

 of camels, with my gun — often disturbing the little sand 

 antelope, which would spring away through the bushes at 

 my approach. 



The sakaro, or dik-dik, as they are called by the 

 Somalis, is, I believe, the smallest of the African antelope 

 tribes, and stands about the size of a hare. The general 

 colour is a rufus-fawn with a tuft of hair on the crown of 

 the head. The eyes are large and the horns corrugated at 

 the base, strongly pointed and from one to three inches in 

 length. The females are even smaller and carry no horns. 



These pretty little antelopes are very common in 

 Somaliland, and I have seen as many as a hundred in the 

 course of a long march. They frequent scrub and aloe 

 jungle, and when disturbed give a shrill whistle of alarm. 

 Sakaro antelopes can be easily knocked over with No. 5 

 ^hot, and make pretty shooting with a rook rifle. 



The klipspringer would also be seen along the rocky 



paths and are very common in the Golis Range. Its height 



at the shoulder is about twenty inches, and it is in colour 



II olive-grey. The hair on coat is long and brittle, not 



uiilike that of the musk deer. The hoofs are cylindrical 



and cup-shaped underneath ; the horns rise vertically 



from the head, with a slightly forward curvature and are 



ringed from the basal thud ; average length being about 



t wo and a half inches. The females have no horns. These 



Titelope go about in twos and threes. They are excellent 



I ting. As we marched on the heat became terrific, and 



we were glad when, at last, we reached a small tree called 



Nasiya," the word meaning "resting-place," whence, 



after taking a short rest we pushed on again reaching the 



next water, Deregodab, twenty-three miles from Bcrbcra ; 



and continuing our journey went on to Mandcra, a valley 



three miles wide under the Gadabarsi * mountain, a bluff 



"f the great Golis Range. 



At Mandcra, and all along the foot of the Golis Range, 

 dense forest of the large Guda thorn tree, with thick 

 iidergrowth of aloes and thorn\' hushes, a favourite resort 

 "f the lesser koodoo. 



* literally, " Lkm^luad mouaUau." 



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