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mounted by a pair of jagged ibex-looking horns, the magpie-head of a sturdy old bull, 
protruded above a thin copse of brushwood through which I was riding, was not to be 
mistaken. I sprang from my horse, and as the whole bloom-coloured herd arose to make 
its rush, sent a bullet spinning betwixt the ribs of their gallant leader. But, although 
tantalized by an occasional glimpse of his silvery form, I followed the bloody trail over 
hill and through dale for eleven long hours, desisting only when the sun had gone down 
and daylight would serve me no longer, I was finally doomed to disappointment through 
lack of assistance. Not another specimen was seen until we had reached the Limpopo, 
the elevated tracts lymg between which river and the Likwa divide the principal 
waters of Southern Africa, and form the peculiar habitat of this species. Even there 
it invariably resides in limited families, which seldom contain more than one old 
bull—a dozen or more of the younger males usually herding by themselves. Equal 
in stature to the largest Arab horse, the whole structure—remarkably powerful and 
muscular—is especially adapted for traversing the rugged regions that it frequents. 
Noi less vigilant than active, its wary troops were ever most difficult to approach—the 
bare mountains crowned with wooded terraces that form the stronghold upon which, 
when disturbed, they invariably sought an asylum, proving alike impracticable to the 
sportsman, whether equipped in pedestrian or in equestrian order ; and some time had 
elapsed before I accidentally ascertained the species to be so utterly destitute of foot— 
that if detected in the open glades, or among the slightly wooded downs, to which 
morning and evening they resort, the bulls especially may be ridden down upon an 
inferior horse in a quarter of a mile! For this singular fact I was the less prepared, 
from having previously ascertained the speed and bottom of the true Gemsbok— 
an animal which is scarcely less heavily built—to be unrivalled among the larger 
Antelopes.” 
The Roan Antelope appears never to have existed south of the Orange 
River, and in more recent days, we fear, has retired much further into the 
interior than the localities specified by Andrew Smith and Cornwallis Harris. 
Messrs. Nicolls and Eglinton, in their ‘Sportsman in South Africa,’ tell 
us that it is ‘‘ now very rarely found on the upper and lower bauks of the 
Botletle River about the Mababé Flats, Great Makari-kari Salt-pans, and 
Chobe districts, while in the less frequented portions of Matabeleland it is 
still fairly common, and although once numerous in Mashonaland, is now 
only to be found there in the low country towards the east coast.” Mr. Selous 
also states that it is “tolerably plentiful” in parts of Mashonaland, and that 
he found a good many in the Manica country, north of the Zambesi. 
Mr. W. L. Sclater informs us that on the western side of South Africa it is 
still to be found in plenty in Damaraland and Ovampoland. 
In the Transvaal, Dr. Percy Rendall, writing in 1895, states that a few of 
these fine animals were still to be found on the Oliphants River. Herr 
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