The Eland 42; 



When old, an eland bull assumes a growth of coarse bristly black hair 

 from 2 to 3 inches in length on the forehead below the horns and 

 extending down the nose between the eyes. In some cases this long- 

 bristly black hair hangs right over the animal's eyes and must much 

 interfere with its sight. It will always be noticed in a freshly killed 

 eland bull that this long hair is damp, often matted together, and emits a 

 strong effluvium, and this is probably due to the fact that these animals 

 are in the habit of anointing their foreheads with their own urine. It is 

 generally asserted that the gray desert elands of South- Western Africa— 

 that is, large males of the species — attain to a standing height at the 

 shoulder of from 6 feet to 6 feet 6 inches, and I once used to think that 

 the elands of the Kalahari Desert grew larger and heavier than those found 

 in Mashunaland. However, in 1884, I carefully measured with a tape- 

 line some fine specimens of eland bulls in the Northern Kalahari, and none 

 of these animals stood as high at the shoulder as the largest elands I have 

 measured in Eastern Mashunaland. Of the latter several stood 5 feet 

 9 inches, and one 5 feet 10 inches; these measurements all having been 

 carefully taken with a tape-line between two sticks held parallel to one 

 another, the one touching the ground at the base of the fore-foot and the 

 other at the wither of the dead animals. 



Six feet six inches seems to me an impossible standing height for 

 an eland to attain to. 1 I think it probable, however, that in good 

 seasons the elands in the Kalahari Desert become fatter and heavier 

 than in any other part of South Africa, for the grasses in that 

 country are very succulent and nourishing, and cattle and sheep thrive 

 and fatten on them exceedingly well as long as they can obtain water. 



There seems no absolute reason why elands in the good days, when these animals were extraordi- 

 narily abundant, should not have attained this height. In 1797 Mr. Barrow (afterwards the well-known 

 Sir John Barrow, Secretary of the Admiralty), when travelling at the Cape, shot an eland the measurements 

 of which he gives as " ten feet and a half in length and six feet and a half in height." Cornwallis Harris 

 gives the height of a mature bull eland as 6 feet 6 inches. Both these are thoroughly reliable authorities. 



