384 Great and Small Game of Africa 



sparingly in most of these localities, but it is to be noted that in the 

 Cape Colony it has been driven for years by the tide of civilisation 

 more and more north-westward, until at the present time it is only to 

 be found, south of the Orange River, in the dry waterless wastes of the 

 region known as Bushmanland. Here, happily, it is still occasionally to 

 be found in small troops, and, thanks to the parched and desert character 

 of this little-known region, it may be hoped that the Cape Colony may 

 for some years yet be able to boast the living presence of the gemsbuck, 

 one of the two supporters — the other being the white-tailed gnu — of 

 its coat of arms. In the heart of the Kalahari the gemsbuck is one of 

 the commonest of the game animals, and ranges freely in large troops 

 in those desert regions, where, for great part of the year, no surface 

 water is to be found. The gemsbuck is, indeed, absolutely independent 

 of water. Despite this fact, strangely enough, and notwithstanding the 

 parched nature of its habitat, it manages to put on flesh in an amazing 

 manner. I have seen gemsbuck in the heart of the Northern Kalahari, 

 during the driest period of the South African winter (July), fat and in 

 high condition. This antelope, although as a rule a shy and suspicious 

 animal, seems in these little-frequented wastes of the North Kalahari to 

 relax something of its ordinary wariness. I have, with a hunting friend, 

 Mr. W. Dove, passed an old bull in a glade of the bush at a distance 

 of 70 yards. The noble beast, which was in magnificent condition, 

 simply stood and stared at us, and not until we spurred our horses and 

 moved on did it take the trouble to trot leisurely away. Our fingers 

 itched to be on the trigger, but we were close upon a troop of giraffe, 

 which we had been following all the morning, and held our hands. As a 

 rule the gemsbuck runs in troops of from a dozen to twenty. Occasion- 

 ally smaller troops are met with, and yet more rarely the herd will 

 reach five -and -twenty or thirty in number. As with other gregarious 

 game animals, the old and useless bulls are driven from the troop and 



