1811. 
HUNTING THE ELAND. 
311 
species so little able to elude its pursuers, and this juicy little 
Mesembryanthemum may generally escape the notice of cattle and 
wild animals. * 
We agreed to rest a day at this place, as well to refresh our teams, 
as to give the people an opportunity of hunting Elands, of which a 
considerable number had been seen under the mountains. Those 
who remained by the waggons, were busily employed in cutting up 
the meat of the four Elands, brought home the day before, into large 
slices generally less than an inch in thickness, which they hung on 
the bushes to dry, as a stock to take home to Klaarwater. All the 
bushes around us, covered with large flaps of meat, was to me, at 
this time, a novel sight ; but it was one of those to which, in the 
following years, I became completely habituated ; as the nature of the 
life we led, rendered it a regular business. The firmest and best 
meat was, in this manner, cured without salt, in two or three days, 
in proportion as the state of the weather was more or less dry. 
The entrails, and other parts which had a greater tendency to putrefy, 
were eaten while fresh. 
Of the meat of a young Eland, which happened to be in good 
case, I made my dinner, and considered it better tasted than the 
finest beef ; with which, in grain and color, it might be compared. 
It seemed to possess a pure, game-like taste, which rendered it both 
wholesome and easy of digestion. 
Within the colony, this animal is becoming daily more scarce ; 
the boors, as well as the Hottentots, preferring its meat to that of 
any other antelope, and therefore, on every occasion, hunting it with 
the greatest eagerness. The principal cause of this preference, and 
at the same time, a very remarkable circumstance, is, its being the 
only one of the antelope genus, on which any considerable quantity 
of fat is ever to be found ; no other species yielding a hard fat 
from which candles may be made. This remark, which probably 
may be applicable to the whole genus of Antilope, and presents 
* See also the remarks at page 226. of this volume. 
