The White-Tailed Gi 



209 



River, the black wildebeest seems only very occasionally to have been met 

 with, nor does it seem to have been known at all in the countries of the 

 Southern Bechuanas. It may, however, be mentioned that Cornwallis 

 Harris did in 1837 find a few of these animals on the Chonapas, now 

 known as the Mooi River, some twenty or thirty miles north of the Vaal. 

 The black wildebeest seems, however, to have seldom ventured more than 

 thirty miles beyond their usual northern boundary on the last-named river. 

 All travellers at the Cape, from Sparrman, the Swedish naturalist, who 



ed Gnus (Ccmmhi-us ga«) in Mr. C. D. Ru 

 Fcrnwood, Newlands, near Cape Town. 



journeyed there in 1772, downwards, noticed with surprise and wonder the 

 extraordinary figure and still more extraordinary evolutions of these strange 

 antelopes. In 1843-44 Gordon- dimming spent much of his time in 

 hunting the then abundant game upon the karroos of the northern portion of 

 Cape Colony. He gives a very exact and interesting picture of the white- 

 tailed gnu. "Wheeling about in endless circles," he says, "and performing 

 the most extraordinary variety of intricate evolutions, the shaggy herds of 

 these eccentric and fierce-looking animals caper and gambol round the 

 hunter on every side. While he is riding hard to obtain a family shot at 



