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SOUTHERN AFRICA. 409 
•serrated grass, are compactly arranged some hundreds of 
nests, to each of which is a small tube by way of entrance 
on the underside ; and those narrow passages are so well pro- 
tected by the sharp points of the dried stems as to make 
it difficult to introduce the hand without injury. 
The plains abounded with ostriches, springboks, harte- 
beests, and quachas ; and a party of the Dutch boors had 
the good fortune to shoot an animal that y/as totally unknown 
to any person in the expedition, and hitherto apparently un- 
described by any naturalist. It was called by the Booshuanas 
the Kokoon. In its general appearance it bore a resemblance 
to the gnoo, but was of a much larger size. It measured in 
height four feet eleven inches ; in length from the head to the 
rump five feet ; the head was one foot ten inches long ; ears 
ten inches ; tail of long black hair three feet three inches, re- 
sembling that of a horse; neck uncommonly thick in pro- 
portion to the body. It had a mane very unlike that of the 
gnoo, flowing over its shoulders, and continuing to the middle 
of the back. The forehead, like that of the buffalo, was 
covered with an osseous excrescence, being in fact the roots of 
the horns, which were terminated in fine pointed extremities like 
those of the gnoo. From the centre of the forehead to the nose 
was an arched or convex protuberance, covered with a ridge 
of long black hair ; and on each cheek, a little below the 
eye, was a remarkable spot of a circular form, rather more 
than an inch in diameter, naked, and apparently glandulous, 
the surface being made up of bundles of fine vessels,- out of 
the orifices of which oozed a vvhite viscous matter. Close 
under these glands grew tufts of black hair ; a long black 
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