XIII 
A SOJOURN AT RE SHI AT AND HERE 
301 
they had been forestalled by outsiders at yesterday’s bulls, and 
were very eager for meat, and I wished to encourage their 
friendliness to us. The tusks, though good, were thin and light. 
We had a hard and rather disappointing day, and our 
weary tramp back was made longer by our getting somewhat 
out of our course—for our guides had long since disappeared ; 
it was cruelly hot, and my gun-bearerS were worn out by the 
mosquitoes and burnt up with thirst. But even out of these 
evils good came; for, in some rather open bush country we 
passed through before reaching the lake (which we afterwards 
struck too far north), I saw some large hartebeeste of a species 
not only new to me, but which seemed to correspond exactly 
with none of which I had read. There was a little herd of 
them, and I had a good look at one (apparently the bull) which 
brought up the rear, through my glasses, and became much 
interested, feeling certain this would prove to be an undescribed 
species. For, although a mere hunter, my love of the subject 
had led me to acquire some general superficial knowledge of 
African antelopes, including the hartebeestes. Its action and 
general appearance corresponded with that of other members 
of the genus, but it struck me as resembling most, both as to 
size and in other respects, the “ tora.” 
I did not get near enough to have a good chance to shoot 
one, and, though no doubt I might have succeeded had I 
followed, under the then circumstances I was not very anxious 
to kill a specimen, feeling sure that I should be able to obtain 
some before leaving the country. And so, fortunately, I did, 
in spite of subsequent difficulties, and the curious fact that 
I met with this hartebeeste nowhere but in this particular 
neighbourhood. My inquiries of the natives elicited only 
confirmation of my own observations in this respect: they all 
declared that only in that circumscribed locality was this 
animal known. The explanation probably is that this is the 
extreme limit of its range in this direction, the area of its 
distribution projecting in a narrow point, as it were, so as to 
