312 
DEATH OF AN ELAND. 
I4f, 15 Sept. 
another character of distinction between that and Cervus, is offered 
with certainty in respect only to those of Southern Africa, amount- 
ing to about twenty-six species, three and twenty of which have occa- 
sionally served me as food in the course of my travels. 
In the afternoon, I observed, with my telescope, one of the 
hunters, who was on horseback, followincr an eland which was comino- 
towards us. It is a practice, whenever it can be done, to drive their 
game as near home as possible, before it is shot ; that they may not 
have to carry it far : but this cannot easily be done till, by a long- 
chase, the animal begins to flag. This was the case at present, and 
the Hottentot drove it on before him with as much ease as he might 
have driven a cow. It had been severely wounded ; and this, doubt- 
lessly, occasioned the facility with which it was managed. The 
animal was brought within twenty yards of the waggons, "where it 
stood still, unable, from fatigue, to move a step further. Before the 
hunter fired again, he was persuaded to wait till I had made two 
sketches, one in profile and another in front. During the whole 
time I was drawing, the animal made no attempt to move, and it 
was really astonishing that it continued so long in the same attitude, 
silent and motionless. So far all this was exceedingly interesting 
and gratifying to my curiosity; but not so the conclusion. This poor 
creature, to whom I was indebted for so favorable an opportunity of 
obtaining, without hurry, a careful and correct drawing of the species, 
appeared so mild and harmless, and had such gentleness, and so much 
speaking solicitude in its beautiful clear black eye, that I could not 
witness its fall ; but turned away before they fired the fatal shot 
which brought it to the ground. 
This animal was a male, measuring in length from the base of 
the horns to the insertion of the tail, seven feet seven inches ; in 
height, from the wither, five feet ten inches ; and in circumference, 
seven feet six inches. The tail scarcely reached so low as the knee, 
and the horns were two and twenty inches long. 
The Eland, called Kanna by the Hottentots, is a handsome 
animal, of a stouter make than the other antelopes, yet still possess- 
ing much elegance; to which its straight spiral horns, pointing back- 
