41 6 Great and Small Game of Africa 



the top of it, and care little whether they rest in the open or under trees 

 or among rocks. Stony ground is not an unlikely place in which to come 

 across them ; and I have even seen them scrambling over the big boulders 

 of the kopjes of the Middle Niger district. 



Their spoor can be distinguished from that of the hartebeest and 

 waterbuck by its greater size, and more especially by the depth of the slot, 

 their weight being very easily inferred from the spoor on any ground which 

 will retain a permanent impression. Opinions as to the speed of the West 

 African roan vary considerably. Some sportsmen do not consider them to 

 be in any way abnormally fleet, and assert that the hartebeest can easily 

 distance them. Others affirm that in their grand stately action they cover 

 an immense distance in very short time, and that they can keep up the 

 swinging majestic canter, their favourite pace, for a very long time. As I 

 have never ridden one down I am unable to state definitely which opinion 

 corresponds with fact, but should say that for short distances the hartebeest 

 would at least be equalled, and I would further incline to a belief in the 

 staying powers of the roan antelope. 



In hunting the roan the intuitive powers born of a long experience of 

 bush work are most to be relied upon. It seems to be more or less useless to 

 follow upon their tracks in the hope of coming up with them. They 

 travel so quickly at a walk and loiter so little that, given even a few 

 minutes' start, it may take hours for a hunter on foot to come up with 

 them. But their progress is rarely straight ahead, their line being either 

 circuitous or zigzag. If one's experience is to be trusted, the best plan 

 of hunting them, after coming across tracks made within the hour, is to 

 make a cast in the most likely direction ; and the indications which should 

 guide one in making any such cast are so slight and so much a matter of 

 intuition rather than of definite reasoning powers, that it is quite impossible 

 to give any idea of what the hunter should take into account. Only bush 

 experience can give one success in making such casts, and, even when 



