242 Great and Small Game of Africa 



A doe I shot on 13th October 1895 contained a small foetus, and on 27th 

 June one of my boys caught a young one that had not been born more 

 than a day or two. 



The locality where this species was obtained is limited, as far as my 

 shooting was concerned, to the large open " dambos " or plains that lie 

 between the Upper Shire River and the foothills of the Mangoche range, 

 on what, in fact, was the bed of Lake Nyasa about a dozen years ago. 

 Here it is found in couples in the open, and jumps up like a steinbuck 

 from the long grass ; and, like that species, always keeps to the open and 

 never takes refuge in the neighbouring belts of bush that fringe the plains. 

 When I was stationed at Fort Johnston I got a good series of these oribis, 

 and there was a spice of danger in shooting on these plains, as the 

 Mangoche range was the stronghold of a slave-trading scoundrel named 

 Zeraphi, who had defeated an expedition sent against him years before, 

 captured a 12-pounder gun, and generally raided and destroyed every 

 village on the east of the Shire River. This, though a most undesirable 

 state of things in a British Protectorate, and one which was remedied very 

 speedily, made the east side of the Shire River a regular game reserve 

 during my year of residence in those parts. 



One afternoon I had shot a nice buck about a mile from the Fort, and 

 about sundown returned with the spoil to find the ramparts manned by 

 the whole of our available garrison, about fifteen men, who anxiously 

 inquired whether I had been having a brush with the enemy, as they were 

 seriously thinking of sending a forlorn hope to search for me, and the 

 collector gravely assured me that if I went out like that he could not be 

 answerable for my safety ! Though this sounds rash, it was not really 

 very risky, as the native guns were old gas-pipes and flint-locks, and not 

 dangerous except within half a dozen yards' range, as bits of iron wire and 

 pieces of cooking-pot legs have a most erratic trajectory beyond that 

 distance. One golden rule I always made, however, was, in passing 



