1897.] OF THE GET«-tJS CERVICAPRA. 895 



which the Vnal Rhebuck occur. The temptation was great, as at 

 that time I had not a single good head in my possession, so natu- 

 rally enough I accepted at once, and after a ten hours' ride reached 

 Kruger's Post, on the western slope of the Berg. I had good 

 sport, and had already secured several fine heads of the ordinaiy 

 Mountain Keedbuck, when, in conversation with a Boer who had 

 ridden with me out shooting, I learned that on the summit of a 

 high spur of the Steenkamp range, in the direction of the Steel- 

 poort River, some white ' Rooi Rhebuck ' were supposed to occur. 

 In answer to my question, he informed me that he himself had 

 only seen the skin of one, a half-grown ewe, which had been 

 caught by a Kafir in a springe. The latter had told him that 

 there were many others in the range, but that the ascent of the 

 range was exceedingly steep and difficult, and could not be managed 

 on horseback. 



" The mere fact that so little seemed to be known of this Antelope 

 aroused my curiosity to such an extent, that I did not rest satisfied 

 till I secured the co-operation of three Boers, living in the district, 

 who knew the range, and who agreed to ride out with me to point 

 out the spot. Accordingly one dark dull morning at 2 a.m. we 

 saddled up our horses and set out, but were unfortunately de- 

 tained for nearly an hour at dawn, owing to a dense, cold fog, 

 which hung over the whole country, and tlirough which it was 

 impossible to distinguish any object at over twenty paces. We 

 were further delayed on the slope of a rocky spur by seeing a troop 

 of seven Mountain Reedbuciss galloping away in front of us ; we 

 gave chase and eventually shot two of them. After an ' off-saddle ' 

 we resumed our course, and at last about 9 a.m. reached the foot 

 of the hill, where we again off-saddled for refreshment and to 

 make our plans for the ascent of the ridge. From the spot where 

 we halted I should judge the summit to be about 1900 ft. high ; 

 but the ascent was certainly likely to be very difficult, the whole 

 face of the slope being strewn with huge granite boulders and 

 patches of dense scrub. When confronted with the task before 

 them, two of my companions refused to go any further with me, 

 but Mr. Hendrik Schoeman said he would go, so we once more 

 saddled up and rode up amongst the boulders as far as we could ; 

 then handing our horses over to the others, who promised to meet 

 us in the afternoon at a kraal some 5 miles distant, Schoeman and 

 I tackled the ascent, and gained the summit about 2| hours later. 

 The general appearance of the spur, looking N.E. and S.W., was 

 that of an irregular plateau with a rocky ridge running longi- 

 tudinally along it. 



" One side of the plateau was bounded abruptly by a sheer preci- 

 pice, while on the other side it sloped off somewhat more gradually 

 towards the Steelpoort in a series of lesser, broken plateaux, thus 

 giving me the idea that it could be more easily ascended from 

 that side. A few scattered ' sugar-bushes ' grew in places, and 

 the grass was short and wiry. As our time was limited we decided 

 to hunt the S.W. end of the spur, my companion taking the left, 



