394 
THE STORY OF THE GAZELLE. 
African springbok. The springbok derives its name from its habit of sud¬ 
denly leaping in the air; and is remarkable both for the vast numbers in 
which it formerly occurred, and for its periodical migrations. I was once a 
spectator of the remarkable scene produced by one of these migrations. For 
about two hours before dawn I had been lying awake in my wagon, listening 
to the grunting of the buck within two hundred yards of me; imagining that 
THE GOITRED GAZELLE. 
some large herd of springboks was feeding beside my camp, but, rising when 
it was light and looking about me, I beheld the ground to* the northward of 
my camp actually covered with a dense living mass of sprinkboks, marching 
slowly and steadily along. They extended from an opening in a long* range 
of hills on the west, through which they continued pouring like the hood of 
some great river, to' a ridge about a mile to the north-east, over which they 
