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from Allamand’s article inserted in Schneider’s edition of the ‘ Histoire 
Naturelle,’ issued at Amsterdam in the previous year, and was accompanied 
by a perfectly recognizable figure of the whole animal under the name of 
“Le Canna,” adopted from its supposed Hottentot appellation. Shortly 
afterwards (1783) Vosmaer, in a number of his ‘ Regnum Animale,’ published 
a full description and coloured figure of the Eland from a specimen then living 
in the Menagerie of the Prince of Orange in Holland, probably the same as 
that from which Allamand had taken his information. Sparrman, who visited 
the Cape about this period, also gave a good account of the structure and 
habits of this Antelope, as observed by him in the Alexandria and Somerset- 
East Divisions of the Colony. Paterson, in 1790, recorded having met with 
Elands in Caledon, as also in the Van-Ryndorp and Uitenhage Divisions a 
few years previously. ‘Thunberg, another well-known traveller and naturalist 
(1795), found the Eland in Uniondale, and Lichtenstein in Calvinia, Aberdeen, 
and Middelburg (1803-4). Our countryman Burchell, as recorded in his 
‘ Travels,’ came across Elands in 1822, in Prieska, Herbert, and Britstown, and 
found them numerous in Hanover. . 
We may now pass on to the days of Harris, whose celebrated hunting- 
expedition into the interior took place in 1836 and 1837. Even at that date 
the Eland was pronounced to be extinct in the Cape Colony, but was met 
with in abundance on the banks of the Vaal River, where Harris feasted 
himself and his followers on its succulent meat. 
By all classes in Africa, Harris writes, the flesh of the Eland is deservedly 
esteemed over that of any other animal :— 
“Both in grain and color it resembles beef, but is far better tasted and more 
delicate, possessing a pure game flavor, and exhibiting the most tempting looking 
layers of fat and lean—the surprising quantity of the former ingredient with which it 
is interlarded exceeding that of any other game-quadruped with which I am acquainted. 
The venison fairly melts in the mouth; and as for the brisket, that is absolutely a cut 
for a monarch.” 
It is right, however, to mention that other experienced authorities do not 
altogether agree with Harris’s pronouncement on this subject. Mr. Selous, 
for example, states his opinion that the flesh of the Eland has been “ very 
much oyver-estimated,” and is ‘‘ not to be compared in flavour with that of the 
Buffalo, Giraffe, Hippopotamus, and White Rhinoceros.” (De gustibus non 
est disputandum!) 
