AXXESLEY BAY— SHOOTING EXCURSION. 1 1 



only one was killed. We also saw numerous traces of 

 wild elephants, but they were said only to visit this part 

 of the country after the spring rains. 



Passing over a little rocky range of basaltic hills and 

 traversing some stony ground, we entered another small 

 plain, on which the bushes were less thick, and saw 

 a numerous herd of a kind of large gazelle {Gazella 

 Soemmeringii), of which two bucks soon fell to our rifles. 

 They were fine animals, equal in size to the common 

 antelope of India, but with longer legs. Both males and 

 females had rather short lyre-shaped horns. 



It was now getting hot, and we had shot over some 

 miles of ground, so we began to return towards our boat. 

 On our way, however, which lay over xmdulating, rocky 

 groimd, we met with new kinds of game. Several 

 Beni Israel (Neotragus saltianus), one of the very 

 smallest antelopes known, a most elegant animal, of an 

 ash-grey colour on the back, passing into rufous on the 

 flanks and legs, and white beneath, and short straight 

 horns in the male only, ran out from the bushes like 

 hares, but at far greater speed. I saw a few red-wattled 

 lapwings {Sarciophmms tectus), and a large flock of 

 painted sand grouse {Pterocles Lichtensteini). While 

 scrambling over the rocks close to the shore I suddenly 

 startled a number of little animals about the size of 

 small rabbits, which scuttled over a pile of stones and 

 hid in the crevices. I rolled one over, and on picking 

 him up recognised a small hyrax, one of the most sin- 

 gular mammals known, with the body of a rabbit, the 

 head of a marmot, no taU, and the dentition of a rhino- 



