274 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



Listening intently, we hear a kind of suppressed 

 grunt borne on the breeze towards us from below. 

 " De klipbok," whispers Tobias, and we cock our 

 rifles quietly. For a few seconds we wait with 

 feverish impatience ; still nothing appears. 



But now, on a sudden through the sweet morning 

 air, picking its way daintily through the long sour 

 grass and over the rough rocks — its proud little head 

 well erect, the sunlight glinting on its short stiletto- 

 like horns, its moist, round muzzle searching the 

 breeze to catch the faintest breath of suspicion, its 

 large ears anon cocked forward to act as auxiliaries 

 to its keener sense of scent — comes a sturdy 

 klipspringer. How magnificently the little plump 

 fellow moves ; how gallant is his port ; how bonny 

 his soft brown eyes, and the rich warmth of his 

 olive-brown tinted coat. Just behind him trips the 

 ewe, and near to her again another pair. Close at the 

 flanks of the ewes run a pair of the daintiest little 

 fawns that ever mortal set eyes on. These little 

 creatures skip and spring in sheer gaiety of heart 

 in the most bewitching manner. Their playful 

 leaps and antics are simply astounding. They seem 

 scarcely to touch the rocks that for one fleeting 

 thousandth part of a second give them foothold. 

 Nothing in nature — not even the chamois of 

 Switzerland or the bighorn of America — can excel 

 these rock-lovers in poetry of motion, in grace of 

 attitude, or in the careless daring of their leap; 

 they fly over rather than touch the rocks and earth. 

 A glance at Tobias warns us not to fire. The ewes, 

 with their young at heel, cannot be shot ; and it were 

 a shame to slay the gallant rams, whose services 

 may be needed — who shall say how soon ? — to 



