272 Great and Small Game of Africa 



be approached with caution. It will charge savagely, and with its strong 

 heavy horns is capable, not only of killing baying dogs, but of inflicting 

 very dangerous wounds on its human foes. It should be added that this 

 splendid antelope is an excellent swimmer, but, from a very reasonable 

 dread of crocodiles, is not often found crossing the deeper rivers. The 

 waterbuck feeds mainly on grass. Its flesh is perhaps the most unpalatable 

 among all African antelopes ; it is coarse and ill-tasted, and by European 

 hunters is invariably avoided. The skin is tough and has excellent powers 

 of resisting wet, and is much patronised by Transvaal Dutch hunters for 

 the purpose of making velsclwons, rude shoes of home-tanned hide which 

 these people usually affect. 



The geographical distribution of the waterbuck is extremely wide — 

 indeed its range may be cited as one of the widest among all African 

 antelopes. When first discovered in the centre of South Africa, this animal 

 seems to have been found about the region of the Notwani and Marico 

 Rivers, tributaries of the Limpopo, in the neighbourhood of the Tropic 

 of Capricorn. It was apparently never heard of on the Orange, seldom, 

 if ever, on the Vaal, and never in the territory of the old Cape Colony, 

 south of the Orange River. But, from the Notwani and Marico Rivers, 

 northward and eastward, its range extends far over the continent of Africa. 

 It is now practically extinct on the two above-named rivers, but it is yet to 

 be found here and there upon the Limpopo or Crocodile River. In South- 

 East Africa it used to be fairly abundant in Zululand, Amatongaland, and 

 the Swazi country, but has now become very scarce in those regions. 

 Above Delagoa Bay, and thence to the mouth of the Zambesi, it is, 

 however, often to be met upon the various streams and rivers. 

 Along the Zambesi, in Mashonaland and Matabeleland, on the Botletli, 

 Tamalakan, Okavango, and other rivers near Lake Ngami, and on the 

 Chobi and other adjacent systems, it is still to be met with. Beyond the 

 Zambesi, it is at once found in Nyasaland. In East Africa it is a common 



