26 
measured nineteen and a half hands at the shoulder, and was armed, unicorn-like, with a single horn, nearly two feet six inches in 
length, The oldest and stoutest bull not unfrequently expels all other males from the herd; and compelling them to flock together, 
takes the ladies under his own especial charge. It is, however, more usual to see both sexes feeding indiscriminately together, and the 
eows being found in calf all the year round, there can be no determined season for rutting. Although in disposition the Eland is so 
extremely docile that it may be trained without the smallest difficulty, its strength is neither proportioned to its gigantic bulk, nor are 
its apparently massive shoulders possessed of sufficient solidity to bear the yoke of domesticity, or render it capable of labouring with 
advantage to the agriculturist. The existence of a second species, the Boselaphus Canna of naturalists, yclept by the Colonists the 
Bastaard Eland, is, I think, extremely questionable in Southern Africa, I could never myself meet with any such variety, and all the 
descriptions given of it answer exactly to the appearance of a growing bull, the horns and colour of which, as in other quadrupeds, are 
then constantly changing. The word Eland, in the Dutch jargon, signifies Jk, an animal to which I need hardly say the subject of the 
annexed portrait bears little resemblance beyond the fact of its being the proprietor of four legs. In days of yore, the species was 
abundant in the Cape Colony, but it has long since become extinct within the boundary—the value of its flesh and hide, added to its 
inability to escape from the mounted pursuer, having soon led to its utter extermination. Large parties of Boors, however, occasionally 
proceed across the boundary, and return with waggon loads of beef, salted and packed away in the skins. The Griquas, also persecute 
these noble creatures unceasingly ; and even the savages who have no horses, not unfrequently race them down on foot, and stab them 
with their assegais ; converting the horns into tobacco-pipes, which, from their huge dimensions, admit of the weed being inhaled after 
the most approved fashion. : 
The stot or mark left by the foot of the Eland resembles that of the buffalo in point of size, but is readily distinguishable from it 
by a practised eye; nor did it ever oceur on the sandy plain, without eliciting from the Hottentot discoverer some sapient remark, pre- 
faced by the exclamation of Elands’ bull! Elands’ cooee! according as the sex was denoted by the spoor.* Whilst hunting Elands on 
the Molopo, a curious scene occurred, which I shall here adduce as a fair specimen of the every-day behaviour of our exemplary and 
attached retainers. Having ridden down a portly bull, and brought the Hottentots to the spot, they proceeded with unwonted alacrity 
to divest the animal of its valuable hide, and had nearly completed the operation, when Richardson casually remarked that it would 
make magnificent riems, or halters, which were much required for securing our horses. The villains looked at each other askance— 
every knife was instantly closed, and returned to the pocket of the owner with the remark that they had been flaying the carcase for 
the purpose of manufacturing veldt scoen, or country buskins, for their own feet; but since we required it, would give themselves no 
further concern on the subject—a determination to which, be it known, they most rigorously adhered. 
Returning one day from hunting the Giraffe to the Northward of the Cashan mountains, and looking for our waggons which had 
moved a march in the meantime, we mistook a large herd of Elands grazing in a mimosa brake, for our own oxen, and were literally 
amongst them before we had discovered the truth. But by far the largest herd seen during the expedition was on the plain of the 
gurgling Chonapas, shortly after moving to the Southward of the Cashan mountains, on our way towards the Vaal river. It may pro- 
bably have consisted of three hundred head, or more, and in appearance could only be compared to a vast drove of stall-fed oxen. 
Ignorant of the nature of the country in advance, we had determined to obtain a supply of tongues and briskets for salting, lest our * 
provisions should run short from the failure of game. Lighter bodied and more active than their ponderous chiefs, the dun colored 
cows jumped nimbly over each other's heads as if they had been all their lives accustomed to the use of the skipping rope; but the 
apoplectic old bulls puffed and laboured in the rear, shaking the firm earth with their heavy tramp—their colloped sides quivering again 
with fat, and embossed with froth and foam. At intervals, we crossed solid natural pavements of granite, which ringing to the tramp 
of their hard hoofs, gaye forth a clangor as from a blacksmith’s forge. Two minutes sufficed to reduce the whole cavalcade to a painful 
trot. We dashed into the middle of the herd, and although some few of the toiling victims turned in desperation with the design of 
impaling their persecutors on their marline spike looking horns, the giants of obesity were so easily disposed of, that every individual 
might haye been incontinently massacred. The weapon I carried was a double-barrelled rifle, guaged eighteen balls to the pound; and 
upon coming up hand over hand with the spent quarrée—reeling, covered with foam, and steaming with sweat, its nostrils expanding as 
it gasped for breath—a single shot delivered pistol fashion at arm's length, into any part of the soft and sinewless frame, invariably 
brought the unwieldy beast to the ground, like a lasso’d bull, with a force that made the earth tremble again—the impetus acquired 
in the sturdy animal’s progress causing it to plough the soil a considerable distance on its knees and horns. 
We had terminated the chase, and strolling over the scene of carnage were filling in the list of casualties, when one of the largest 
bulls, which had been knocked over by Richardson about the beginning of the skirmish, and left under a thorn tree, to all appearance 
in a dying state, was remarked to be missing. After a laborious search, his twisted horns were at length observed protruding from a pit, 
barely large enough to contain his vast bulk ; and on being approached he set off again as if nothing had happened, and gave a better 
run than at first. Leading my own horse, laden with spolia, 1 was walking slowly along, witnessing this singular scene, when an enor- 
mous bull rose leisurely from a tuft of grass, and seeing the horns of some of his beheaded comrades peering above my saddle-bow, 
approached with cautious step to scrutinize them. Although I had stayed my hand from slaughter, I was not proof against this tempta- 
tion, Casting the ponderous trophies on the earth, I vaulted again into the saddle, and presently took the conceit out of this burly fel- 
low, accounting also for another, equally large, by which he was joined during the chase. Leaving the carcase a banquet for the vul- 
tures, we loaded our meagre steeds with the choicest morsels, and rejoined the cafila in the afternoon. Ne’er did bold Robin Hood and 
his “ brave fellowes” taste such “ fat ven'son by the highway side, in the forest of merry Sherwood,” as we carried to our wild bivonac 
on that memorable evening, The camp had been formed on the sedgy banks of the deep Chonapas, the murmuring waters of which 
* Spoor. The Dutch word for the trail or foot print. 
