96 
nUMINATING ANIISIALS. 
noonday. These herds cliange their pasture according 
to its freshness and duration : they migrate in search 
of new food, and, like the locusts, mark the tract 
which they pursue ; — woe to the colonist whose ten- 
der corns grow in the passage of these migratory 
troops, his efforts are unavailing, the destruction of 
the food alone drives them_off. * In Europe, a few 
• The following note, extracted from Thompson’s Tra- 
vels in South Africa, is descriptive of one of this graceful 
tribe, and is curious in detailing the migrations which they 
seem to perform periodically : 
“ It is scarcely possible for a person passing over some 
of the extensive tracts of the interior, and admiring that 
elegant antelope the Springbok, thinly scattered over the 
plains, and bounding in playful innocence, to figure to him- 
self, that these ornaments of the desert can often become 
as destructive as the locusts themselves. Tiie incredible 
number which sometimes pour in from the north, during 
protracted droughts, distress the farmer inconceivably. 
Any attempt at numerical computation would be vain ; 
ami by trying to come near the truth, the writer would 
subject himseltj in the eyes of those who have no knowledge 
of the country, to a suspicion that he was availing himself 
of a traveller’s assumed privilege. Yet it is well known in 
the interior, that. On the approach of the Trek-bokken, the 
grazier makes up his mind to look for pasturage for his 
flocks elsewhere, and considers himself entirely dispossessed 
of his lands until heavy rains fall. Every attempt to save 
his cultivated fields, if they be not enclosed by high and 
thick hedges, proves abortive. Heaps of dry manure (the 
fuel of the Sneeuwbergen and other parts) are placed close 
to each other round the fields, and set on fire in the even- 
ing, so its to cause a dense smoke, by which it is hoped the 
antelopes will be deterred from their inroads ; but the dawn 
of day exposes the inellicacy of the precautions, by shew'- 
ing the lands, which appeared proud of their promising' 
