308 THE KEIT-BOK. 



each leading to one principal cell. It seemed that 

 these holes were intended to facilitate escape in case 

 of attack, the animal being extremely timid. In proof 

 of this, I may mention the circumstance of the farmer 

 who accompanied me having upon one occasion 

 ventured to take away the young without any appre- 

 hension of interruption from the old ones, which had 

 fled at his approach. Indeed they seldom or never 

 resent an aggression of this kind. After a day spent 

 in fruitless search, we, to our great mortification, 

 returned without having procured a specimen of this 

 curious animal. The farmer informed me that, on 

 moonlight nights, he had frequently seen as many 

 as ten or fifteen together, prowling among the hills 

 in pursuit of prey, and raising a most frightful howl. 



We shot a greys-bok, Antilope grisea, which we 

 found browsing on a bank near some bushes, and 

 which appeared to be completely blind ; — a circum- 

 stance, according to the farmer's statement, of no 

 uncommon occurrence. Here we also met with 

 the reit-bok, Antilope eleotragus, the first I had 

 seen. It is found generally in a marshy soil among 

 reeds, from Avhence the colonists have given it the 

 name of reit-bok. Its horns measured about eleven 

 inches in length, bending forward in a curve, and 

 annulated about one-half of the length of the base. 

 It is rather a scarce animal, and only found near the 

 coast. 



Quitting this plain we came to Van Staden River, 



