294 Great and Small Game of Africa 



grass, 6 to 8 feet high, by a succession of leaps, and there are few prettier 

 sights than that of a buck kob when alarmed traversing such a bed. 



The kob is also a good swimmer, and will not hesitate to cross the Niger 

 or Benue at their broadest parts, i to i-J miles, when alarmed or desirous 

 of changing its feeding-ground. It swims very low down in the water, 

 the nostrils, eyes, ears, and horns being about all that appear above the 

 surface, and it gets through the water at the rate of about 6 miles an hour. 



The flesh of a young buck kob is decidedly palatable, and is always 

 an addition to the table ot a hunting camp. ^ i Arnold 



The Pookoo (or Puku) Kob (Cobus vardoni typicus) 



Impookoo of Masubias ; Muntinya of Barotsi ; Seula in Chilala and 

 Chibisa Countries 



The range of the pookoo antelope in Southern Africa has always been 

 a very limited one, and I think it very probable that this species has now 

 been altogether exterminated in the only district where it ever existed to 

 the south of the Zambesi, viz. the small strip of country extending from 

 the junction of the Chobi and the Zambesi westwards for some 6o or 70 

 miles along the southern bank of the Chobi River, and eastwards along the 

 southern bank of the Zambesi as far as the Victoria Falls. The first pookoo 

 I ever saw was standing grazing on the very brink of the great falls of the 

 Zambesi, and was so enveloped in the dense clouds of spray and mist which 

 continually rose from the vast chasm below it, that we had walked within 

 20 yards of it before it became visible. One of our party then shot it, 

 and it was recognised by some of our native attendants as a female pookoo. 



This was in June 1874. From the Victoria Falls we followed the 

 course of the Zambesi westwards, always keeping close to the water's edge 

 along the southern bank, but none of our party ever saw another pookoo 

 antelope until we had reached the mouth of the Chobi River. From that 



