SABLE AND ROAN ANTELOPES 
Syria, known broadly as ‘“‘oryx,” are represented on the Egyp- 
tian monuments; and their long, straight, powerful horns, 
sweeping back almost to 
the haunches, may, when 
seen in profile, look as if 
only one were there, and so 
have anciently suggested the 
fabled unicorn. All are 
handsomely marked in 
sharply contrasted patterns 
of dark and light colors, 
and some of the most strik- 
ing, as the gemsbok, in- 
habit South Africa, or did 
formerly. The most admi- 
rable of all antelopes, per- 
haps, is one of these, the 
sable, the discovery of which 
by Captain Cornwallis 
Harris in 1838 was the be- 
ginning of an admiring en- 
thusiasm among sportsmen, 
increasing as its subject 
becomes rarer and more 
remote. ‘‘It were vain,” 
declares Harris,”° “to at- 
tempt a description of the sensation I experienced when thus 
after three days of toilsome tacking and feverish anxiety, .. . 
I at length found myself in actual possession of so brilliant an 
addition to the riches of natural history.... We thought we 
could never have looked at or admired it sufficiently.” A few 
years later Gordon Cumming repeated these joys. 
Copyright, N. Y. Zoél. Society. Sanborn, Phot. 
THE ROAN ANTELOPE. 
“Cantering along through the forest,” he records,” ‘‘I came suddenly 
in full view of one of the loveliest animals which graces this fair creation, 
T 273 
