ANIMAL GIANTS 21 



This really magnificent creature is the largest of all the Antelopes. 

 It is now practically extinct in Cape Colony, and owing to civiliza- 

 tion penetrating elsewhere into the great African continent, it is 

 safe to assert that the day is not far distant when, as a wild animal, 

 the Eland will be no more. And this is to be regretted all the more 

 because if it had been domesticated by man there is every likelihood 

 that it would have been spared to us for generations to come. 



Attempts have, it is true, been made to acclimatize it in England, 

 but it is a thousand pities that some preserves have not been mapped 

 out in its own native land where it would have remained in safe 

 keeping. The tender flesh being in days gone by highly esteemed 

 for food has, as a natural consequence, helped very largely to reduce 

 its numbers, whilst the skin is valuable in many ways. 



A good specimen will weigh from 1,500 to 2,000 lb., and attain 

 a height of nineteen hands at the withers, and a length of nine feet. 

 The young one shown in the photograph was only four days old 

 when it stood for its picture, but the adult is distinguished by the 

 strong twisted horns and a dewlap which bears a fringe of black 

 hair like the mane. There are two varieties of Elands in Africa, 

 which vary in colour. The species in Central Africa is pale fawn, 

 whilst the species in the South is bright yellow tan. The thinness 

 of the hair, however, often gives the old bulls a bluish cast. 



Elands are found in dry, sandy, and yet thickly wooded country, 

 and that they sometimes associate with other inhabitants of the wilds 

 is shown by Mr. Selous entering in his diary a note to the effect that 

 he saw on one occasion a large herd of Zebras, headed by two fine 

 Elands, standing in the open flat. The bull, according to the same 

 observer, is, when encountered in a wild state, a grand-looking 

 beast, "with his heavy though shapely body, low-hanging dewlap, 

 fine, clean-cut limbs and small, game-looking head. He is one 

 of those stately creatures that few reflecting men can slay without 

 regret, and fewer still, I hope, would kill for sport alone, leaving the 

 carcase to rot in the wilderness or fatten the Wolves ^ and Vultures ; 

 but, at the same time, it is as necessary for the hunter, upon whose 

 rifle, perhaps, a score of hungry savages are dependent for food 

 from day to day, to shoot many beautiful and harmless animals, as 

 it is for a butcher in a civilized land to poleaxe an Ox." 



WAPITI STAG. — The Turkestan Wapiti Stag is the Asiatic 



' Doubtless Mr. Selous here refers to the Jackals, no true species of Wolves being 

 found in Africa. — W. P. W. 



