30 THE SPORTSMAN IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



Namaqualand, but only on those farms of the Dutch and English 

 settlers where they are preserved, and from whom permission to 

 shoot should on all occasions be first obtained. The same remarks 

 equally apply to the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. The 

 year previous to Sir Charles Warren's Bechuanaland Expedition in 

 1884, the plains in the neighbourhood of the great salt-pan at 

 Groot Choiang, about 30 miles North of Vryburg, were frequented 

 by large herds, but now it is only on rare occasions that a stray one 

 may be met with there, and which has probably crossed from the 

 preserved farms of the Transvaal Boers on the other side of the 

 border. Throughout the remaining portion of Bechuanaland they 

 are nearly extinct, and the next 12 months will probably see the last 

 of them in that region. On the open arid flats, both North and 

 South of the Botletle, where the road from Palapye to Lake 

 'Ngami strikes the river, they still roam in large herds, as well 

 as in the neighbourhood of the Makari-kari salt-pans. In Great 

 Namaqualand, Damaraland, and portions of Ovamboland they are 

 still fairly plentiful. The Springbuck is very migratory in its habits, 

 and in the past, in seasons of drought, was wont to change its feed- 

 ing grounds, when thus on the move assembling in herds of such 

 enormous extent that reliable authorities have stated that as far as 

 the eye could reach the entire plains have been one living mass of 

 trekking buck. Their favourite haunts are perfectly open flats, and 

 it is only during the extreme cold of the winter nights, or occasionally 

 in the lambing season, that they seek shelter in the bush. It derives 

 its name from the peculiar habit, when startled, and sometimes even 

 in mere playfulness, of springing from the ground often to a height 

 of 8 feet, arching its back and lowering its head, a ridge of hair 

 extending along the spine being elevated into a crest. It is- also 

 curious to observe that when a flock on the move meets with a 

 wagon road or beaten track, each animal, instead of running across 

 the same, will clear the space at a bound. In speed they excel all 

 other South African antelopes, but are not possessed of the same 

 amount of endurance as the Tsessebe or Hartebeest. It requires 

 a great deal of practice, and a facility for accurately determining 

 distances, to become even a tolerable Springbuck shot. Owing to 

 the unequal refraction on the open sandy flats, the light is most 

 uncertain, and objects at a considerable distance appear as if actually 

 at hand. It is, then, not to be wondered at why crack target shots 

 often miserably fail in bringing down a single animal when a Spring- 



