CHAPTER I. 
THE GNOO. 
But soon, *mid Afric’s landéeape Lone, 
Old reminiscences dre gone: 
Soon We raise the eye to range 
O'er prospects wild, grotesque, and strange— 
Benats of mix’d, and monstrous birth, 
Creations of some fabled earth, 
Bursting like whirlwind through the waste, 
With clattering hoofs, and headlong baste, 
A more whimsical compound than the Gnoo could scarcely have been thrown together, or a monster imagined of more fantastical 
aud anomalous exterior. At the first glance, a stranger to the African Fauna would conclude that the shaggy head of the American 
Bison had been tacked, centaur-like, pon the shoulders of a pony ;—the equine similarity of the arched neck and well-rounded erupper, 
heing materially enhanced by the neatly clipped mane, and long flowing tail ;—whilst the legs, which are slender, vigorous, and well 
knit, are no less strikingly cervine. Exhibiting this absurd combination of characters, each in itself the peculiar feature of some other 
quadruped, Naturalists haye ever been greatly perplexed in deciding upon the legitimate position which should be assigned to so singular 
au animal, Originally, it was classed with the Antelopes, between which and the Buffalo, it unquestionably forms the link ;—hbut, 
possessing in general aspect, figure, and motions, as well as in the texture and taste of the flesh, attributes which most strongly partake 
of the bovine character, Zoologists have at length become unanimously agreed upon the propriety of transferring it to a genus more 
closely allied to the taurine group. 
The supposed identity of the Guoo, with the terrific animal referred to by lian under the title of Catoblepas, ( Kerw®As,) has 
latterly led to the adoption of that classical, and far more appropriate nomenclature. Inhabiting Ethiopia near the sources of the Nile, 
the Catoblepas is described by Pliny, as “a savage and sluggish beast resembling a bull, but endowed with a more fierce and terrible 
aspect :—its eyes red with blood like those of an ox, surmounted by lange and elevated brows, and having their deadly glance directed 
obliquely towards the earth, nomen inde derivatur ; its ponderous head, which it carries low, furnished with a flowing mane, which 
descends over the forehead, and so covers the face, as to impart additional terror to its appearance.” That the ancients should 
have invested, with something of the marvellous, so whimsical a creature as the subject of the annexed portrait, is by no means 
surprising ; and Pliny’s deseription, although obviously vague and extravagant, is altogether far from being inapplicable to the Gnoo, the 
limits of whose range are undefined, and a variety of which may not improbably have been seen by the Romans, when they had carried 
their conquest towards the more central regions of the African continent. 
In habits also, as well as in appearance, the Gnoo is of all quadrupeds perhaps the most awkward and grotesque. Nature 
doubtless formed him in one of her freaks, and it is searcely possible to contemplate his ungainly antics without laughter. Wheeling 
and prancing in every direction, his shaggy and bearded head arched between his slender and muscular legs, and his long white tail 
streaming in the wind, this pantomimic, and ever wary animal, has at onee a ferocious and a ludicrous appearance. Suddenly stopping, 
shewihy an imposing front, and tossing his grizzled head in mock defiance. his wild red sinister eyes flash fire, and his snort, resembling 
the roar of a lion, is repeated with energy and effect. Then lashing his pillowed flanks with his floating tail, he plunges, bounds, 
kicks up his heels with a fantastic flourish, and in a moment is off again at speed, making the dust fly behind him as he sweeps 
across the plain. 
"His eyes are jet, and they ove set, in crystal rings of anow, 
But now they stare, with one red glure, of brass upon their foe : 
Low to his knee, his head holds he, his nostrils snuff the wind, 
To his heel doth trail, his silyery tail, ewinging his flanks behind! 
Although daily becoming more rare, wilde beests, or wild cattle, as these eccentric quadrupeds are designated by the Dutch Boors, 
may still be’found on the desert. tracts called Karroo,* as well as in some of the most remote and unfrequented districts of the Cape 
Colony. Gregarious, fretfal, and of extremely restless habits—although seeming to be alike regardless of water, herbage, and shade,— 
the Gnoo migrates from place to place, according to the season; and large troops are constantly to be seen by the traveller, grazing in 
the society of the Quagea and Springbok, ar scouring the broad and verdant plains of the interior, in wide extended circles—moving 
usually in single files—butting, capering, and curvetting, in the performance of the most intricate and fanciful manceuvres, their track 
followed by ascending colurmms of dast which their heels have raised 
same wilds,—tricked out in their holiday plumes, 
:—a goodly knot of giant ostriches—the independent tenants of the 
uot unfrequently enacting the part of reviewing General and staff, with such grave 
propriety, us forcibly to remind the spectator of a cavalry parade. Seen roaming singly during the season of rutting, or careering over 
the hroad daisied prairie, jerking its long switch tail, and uttering at intervals that deep hollow moun which may best be expressed by 
* Kavroo, A dry desert plain. ‘The Great Karroo is an unhabitable waste, forming un elevated steppe of table land, 800 miles long by 90 broad, which stretches along the 
corthern border of the Colony, betwixt the wreat ridges atyled Zunvthergen, and Sneeuwherger, anglicé the Black and the Snowy Mountiins, 
