AFTER ORYX AND ELAND—BARINGO 89 
Of the many splendid forms that Nature has designed 
for African antelopes, none surpass that of the oryx. 
Strength and grace combine in every line. A massive 
chest and upright neck, deep, yet tapering to the throat, 
are completed by a beautifully-proportioned barrel and 
strong though slightly sloping quarters. It is in this 
latter respect that the hartebeest group fall away, the 
exaggerated slope giving them—one is loth to apply a 
disparaging epithet to such fine game—almost an un¬ 
gainly appearance. Of the former type none but the 
superb sable really compares on equal terms with the 
oryx, and the roan comes second to this pair. The 
waterbuck, it is true, idealises massive elegance, but his 
type is different. His are rather the four-square lines 
of a red deer on a grander scale. 
My prize carried horns of ins., with a basal 
circumference of just under 7 ins. His hide was scarred 
with wounds from a score of fights, and from the skin 
of his neck, which was near 2 ins. thick (thus differing 
from that of the cow, which was quite thin-skinned), I 
cut an imbedded bullet of some previous hunter. The 
weight of this oryx bull we estimated at 450 lbs., the 
female about 400 lbs. Returning towards camp—and 
