162 THE KLIPSPRINGER— THE STEENBUCK 



circle of foothills and spring almost precipitously 

 until, with a few strongly marked inequalities, 

 affording foothold for nothing but the klipspringer 

 or the eagle, they reach the edge of the plateau 

 above. From these eyries, therefore, except on 

 the rare occasions of his descents to lower 

 levels, the klipspringer scans with who shall 

 say what inner feelings of conscious superiority 

 the approach of the crawling danger. It requires 

 but a few effortless springs to bear him safely 

 out of harm's way, so there he boldly stands, 

 chamois-like, or perhaps ibex-like, all four feet 

 drawn closely together as he balances his shapely 

 body on some tiny projection or summit of rock 

 scarcely large enough to offer standing room to 

 an eagle. A few moments of rapt, statue-like, 

 inquiring gaze, and he seems to rise abruptly 

 into the air. A series of rapid, springy bounds 

 remove him from our ken. He is gone, who 

 shall say whither ? 



I think the tally of the small Zambezian 

 antelopes exhausts itself with the Steenbuck, 

 which exists in considerable numbers on the 

 open grassy plains of the entire district. In 

 the Cheringoma region, I have seen numbers 

 of these animals, but, beyond procuring a good 

 specimen, was but little attracted to them, the 

 country at that time being full of other and 

 more interesting beasts, of which, since then, it 

 has been to a great extent denuded. 



Steenbuck are curious, solitary little creatures, 

 and though found at certain seasons of the year 

 in grassy clearings and on the edges of the plains. 



