8 
(1772-74) the Klipspringer was to be met with on the rocks of Vals 
Bay in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town. On Buffon’s Klipspringer 
Zimmermann founded his Antilope oreotragus in 1783, and Boddaert his 
Antilope saltatrix in 1785. As we use Oreotragus for the generic name 
we will adopt saltator, the masculine form of saltatrix, as the specific 
appellation of this Antelope. 
Harris, in his well-known ‘Portraits of the Game Animals of South 
Africa,’ gives us a picture of the Klipspringer on the same plate as that 
of the Mountain Zebra (Equus zebra), which in his time was still found 
in the high mountains of the Cape Colony, and supplies the following 
particulars :— 
‘During the pursuit of the Zebra, which was confined to the most steep 
and elevated parts of this rugged range, I repeatedly fell in with and killed 
the Klipspringer. Once extremely abundant in the Cape Colony, it is now 
daily becoming more rare—the venison being deservedly reputed among the 
first that the country affords, whilst the elastic hair is sought above all other 
materials for the stuffing of saddles. Long, padded, and standing out 
vertically from the side, it resembles moss in texture, and constitutes, as in 
the chamois of the Alps, a natural cushion to protect the animal from the 
contusions to which its habits must render it constantly liable. No antelope 
possesses more completely the lively gamboling manners of the young kid— 
none bound with greater force or precision from rock to rock, or clear the 
yawning abyss with more fearless activity. Found usually in pairs among 
the most precipitous rocks, and inaccessible summits, the Klipspringer would 
appear in Southern Africa to supply the place of the ibex and chamois; and 
such is the rigidity of its stiff pasterns, and the singular formation of the 
high cylindrical hoof, that even when at speed there is no track left but by 
the tips of the toes, whereas every other class of ruminant would leave, under 
similar circumstances, some traces also of the spurious hoofs. The most 
trifling obliquity or ruggedness of surface thus affording a secure foothold, 
the little animal, ‘whose house is on the hill-top,’ entertains a sense 
of self-security which oftentimes proves its ruin. Looking down from 
some craggy pinnacle, as if in derision of the vain efforts of its pursuer, 
it presents to the rifle the fairest of targets; and tumbled headlong from 
its elevated perch, pays the penalty of its rashness. Missed, it bounds 
from ledge to ledge, on which the human eye can mark no footing— 
