34 
“It were vain to attempt a description of the sensations I experienced when thus, 
after three days of toilsome tacking and feverish anxiety, unalleviated by any incident 
that could inspire the smallest hope of ultimate success, I at length found myself in 
actual possession of so brilliant an addition to the riches of natural history. The prize 
evidently belonged to the Aigoccrine group, and was equal in stature to a large 
galloway. The horns, which were flat, and upwards of three feet in length, swept 
gracefully over the back in the form of a crescent. A bushy black mane extended 
from the lively chestnut-coloured ears to the middle of the back ; the tail was long and 
tufted; and the glossy jet-black hue of the greater portion of the body contrasted 
beautifully with a snow-white face and belly. We thought we could never have looked 
at or admired it sufficiently ; my companion observing, after a long pause, ‘that the 
Sable Antelope would doubtless become the admiration of the world.? A drawing and 
description having been completed on the spot, the skin was carefully removed and 
conveyed upon a pack-horse in triumph to the camp; and it may possibly interest those 
of my readers, who shall have followed me during the last three days, to learn that I 
succeeded, with infinite difficulty, in bringing this unique and interesting specimen of 
African zoology, in a state of high preservation, to Cape Town, where, in October last, 
it was elegantly set up by Monsieur Verreaux, the French naturalist, and obligingly 
taken to England by my well-known friend Captain Alexander, 42nd Royal Highlanders, 
and is now in the British Museum.” 
On January 9th, 1838, Harris exhibited his mounted specimen of the 
Sable Antelope at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London, and 
proposed for it the apposite scientific name “niger.” The same specimen 
was subsequently figured in the second volume of the Society’s ‘ 'Trans- 
actions.’ 
Writing in 1881 Mr. Selous gave the following account of the distribution 
of the Sable Antelope at that period :— 
“At the present a few Sable Antelopes are still to be found in south-western 
Matabele Land, in the neighbourhood of the Ramokwebani, Shashani, and Samookwe 
rivers (tributaries of the Shashe). Along the waggon-road leading from Tati to the 
Zambesi it may be met with here and there, but is decidedly scarce. All along the 
Chobe river, as far as I have been, I have met with this Antelope, though sparingly. In 
the Mababe country, and on the road leading from there to Bamangwato, I neither saw 
a Sable Antelope nor the spoor of one, and do not think its range extends so far to the 
west. In the broken country to the south of the Victoria Falls, in the neighbourhood 
of the Pendamatenka and Daka rivers, it is not uncommon, but its true home is the 
higher portions of the Mashuna country, to the north-east of the Matabele country. 
There it is the commonest Antelope, and may still be met with in herds of over fifty 
individuals, the usual number being from ten to twénty. However large the herd, I 
have never scen more than one full-grown bull with it, though there may be several 
