356 
SAVAGE SUDAN 
compares my description (as above) of the ariel in Sudan 
with those of our standard authorities, he must perceive 
at a glance that the two versions differ diametrically, 
chiefly as regards the personal appearance of the animals, 
but, in minor degree, respecting its haunts and its 
habits. 
It is with reluctance that one seems—even superficially 
—to place oneself in quasi - contradiction to other and 
thoroughly reliable observers, whose opportunities of study 
have been as great or greater than my own. I do not, 
in fact, do so, since the areas differ; but the accepted 
descriptions of the “ aoul ” in Somaliland differ so diamet¬ 
rically from my impression of the “ariel” in Sudan that 
the point is worth raising. Thus in the Book of Antelopes, 
vol. iii., and in Rowland Ward’s Great and Small Game 
of Africa (both standard works), I find the following 
epithets applied to the ariel:—“ Heavy—clumsy'—coarse 
■—thick-set — ungraceful — lacking in grace and beauty 
—heavily-built—sheep-like,” etc. They amaze me, but 
may nevertheless be correct; if so, there must exist 
an unparalleled divergence between two local races 
of one species. The ariel of Sudan can only be de¬ 
scribed in terms precisely the reverse—as my rude 
sketches may serve to show. 
One other point in this connection. In my book On 
Safari (p. 126), I recorded seeing certain unrecognised 
gazelles at Lake Elmenteita in British East Africa, 
which were confidently identified by my Somali gunbearer, 
y( ElmjHdas.san) as “aoul” ( = ariel); but the very descrip¬ 
tions of the “aoul” just quoted, convinced me that Elmi 
must have been mistaken. But now, after having seen 
the animal in life, that conviction is shaken. The Equator 
seems a long way south of the ariel’s known range; but 
when the vast deserts that separate the administered 
areas of British East Africa from Somaliland and 
Abyssinia become zoologically better known, it may 
conceivably be found that ariel, on occasion, do wander 
( j frith fri idea Wwty Qfjfi 
