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completed on the spot, while the victim was still watm, the spolia were carefully removed, and conveyed upon a pack-horse to 
the waggons,—the night which succeeded to that most fortunate day of the whole campaign — my last in the bonny mountains 
of Cashan—being passed in preparing the skin for the long journey that was before us. After having been thoroughly salted, 
it was folded up and enclosed in an empty meal-bag —a place being allotted to it at the foot of my bed, which it occupied 
during the greater portion. of our return pilgrimage, <A highly unenyiable bed-fellow, and a source of perpetual anxiety, it 
finally revched. Cape Town in a state of the highest preservation ; and having been elegantly set up by Monsieur Verreaux, the 
French Naturalist, now graces the collection of the British Museum. 
From the very first glimpse I had been thoroughly persuaded that the sable antelope would prove to be a member of the 
Aigocerine group, nor was I mistaken in my conjecture. Nearly equal in stature to the Equina, it appeared in point of general 
contour to be more closely allied to that splended species than to any other with which we are yet acquainted. The horns, 
upwards of three feet in length and perfectly flat, sweept gracefully over the back in the form of a crescent —a bushy black 
mane rising behind them, and extending betwixt the lively chestnut coloured ears to the middle of the back, The tail— both 
tasseled and fringed —resembled that of no other known Antelope; and the glossy jet black hue of the greater portion of the 
coat, whilst it formed a most vivid and remarkable contrast with the snowy whiteness of the lower parts, imparted the appear- 
ance of a suit of the deepest mourning, During my first interview, I had ample opportunity of remarking, that the females, 
like their lords, were all provided with scimitar shaped horns; and although somewhat smaller in stature, that they were simi- 
larly marked—a deep chesnut brown, verging upon black, taking the place of the intense sable and tan. Judging from the 
compact form of the hoot, the Aabitat of the species should be limited to hilly districts; and it seems probable from many cir- 
cumstances, that the herd fait which my specimen was pecan had wandered to the spot in which we found it, from moun- 
tains lying to the northward and eastward, which may perhaps form their head-quarters. Be this as it may, by none of the 
natives within our reach was the animal recognised—althongh some, to conceal their ignorance, pronounced it to be kvokaama, 
which in the Sichuana dialect signifies the oryx or true gemsbok—an animal of such extremely rare occurrence within Mosele- 
katse’s country, that they had in all probability never even seen one. 
On our return to Graham's Town, several months after the realization of the new Antelope, I sought the trader Scoon, who 
had giyen us many valuable hints connected with the expedition now so successfully terminated. The poor fellow was confined 
to his bed with an acute attack of rheumatism, which he had contracted during his last smouching* journey to Litakeo; and mis- 
taking me at first for one of his hard hearted creditors, my visit naturally enough appeared to afford him anything but pleasure. 
4 
“You hae seen,” said he, after several uncasy allusions to the crippled state both of his frame and finances, ‘‘ You hae seen the 
twa gentlefolks, Sir, wha cam last oot o’Sillekat’s land? I canna for the vary life o' me think on their names. Sure one was a 
Captun Harrison, or some Captun or anither o’ the Indy Company's airmy, and he had wi’ him Sir William Richards, the Juidge, 
or I'm sair mistaen. [ts noo mair nor a twalmonth syne, Sir. They cam up frae the Bay wi’ auld Mathew’s lang waggin, on 
their road oot to pit a muckle top-coat on the black shoulders o° that naked cairl Sillekat; and noo I'm tell't they're coom 
back into the toon.” “You probably allude to myself,’ I returned, “and to my fellow-traveller, Mr, Richardson, whom you 
were so good as to visit at Parke’s Hotel.” ‘Hh, Captun Harrison,” he exclaimed, snatching from off his head the foot of old 
stocking, which was doing duty for a night-cap, at the same time that he extended his bony hand, “an’ is it yoursel? aweel 
[*thoght ye was Misther Smeeth. I'm varry glad to see ye safe returned again, Sir, frae amang a’ thae cut-throat kafirs; an 
Sir William, too,’—taking a pinch of snuff with renewed confidence—“I hope he’s uncommon hearty. Andhries has been tellin’ 
me, Sir, that ye hae broucht doon in the waggin wi’ ye that onco fine Black Boke} that I made sartain wad hae been the makin’ 0’ 
ta fortine ane o’ thae days, whan the rheumatiz had left me ould banes, ch, Sirs, that’s aye the gait; them that has mair 
siller nor they ken what to do wi’, are sure to hae a’ the Juck, and them puir deevils that’s starvin’ o’ want, is everlastingly 
unfortnit, Why, Sir, its twa year syne, that I was huntin’ o' yeelephants in’ thae same muntains, whan I foregathered wi’ thae 
varry troep o' bonnie bokes, wi’ that yaedentical black spunkie that I'm tell’t ye’ve felled, an ralé keen to be sure I was to 
hae fired amaingst them; but thae Hottentot loons—ye ken the obstinit and thrawn natur o° them—they wad hear o° nathing 
o the sort. JT wad na say ma heed was ma ain whan a bul yeelifant was a-fit; and as it turned oot, the loons lost the 
* Itinerant traders in the colony are not inappropriately termed “ smouches.” 
t ‘'wo domestic Dutch farmers excepted,—who had positively never crossed the Colonial boundary, and neither of whom had in all probability seen such of 
Africa beyond the limite of his own estate,—Scoon is the only man, who, so far as I am aware, has laid claim to acquaintance with the Sable Antelope, prior to my 
introducing it. No soul on earth ever breathed to me of the existence of a still undiscovered species before I had found it: yet are there never wanting abundance 
of envious persons who seek to solace their own disappointment by endeavouring to depreciate the success of the more fortunate or the more persevering. Letters 
that I have lately received, aeeure me that in my native Tand the larger portion of the merit due to my discovery has been awarded to Dr. Andrew Smith, who 
is stated to have apprized me of the existence of the animal, and directed my attention to where it might be found. I have neyer ti to acknowledge my 
lasting obligations to that distinguished Naturalist for the liberal and friendly information which he afforded me at Cape Town; and should oi Paragraph ag mit 
his eye, I feel confident that he will bear me out in the assertion, that during the many conversations wherewith be favored me regarding the wild denizens of 
Southern Africa, he never in the most remote manner hinted at the existence of the species in question, I twice wrote to the worthy Doctor after my return, 
- giving a description of my prize, and requesting that he would name it; but he had sailed for Europe, and many thousand miles intervening betwixt us, I be- 
stowed the name it now bears, in consultation with Monsieur Verreaux, In the first edition of my Narrative, digocerus Niger (Harrisii) was, by an error in the 
press, converted into 4. Harrisii, whence my well-wishers have done me the favour to insinuate that I vauntingly christened it after myself. Unfortunately, how- 
ever, for their veracity in this instance also, the animal is to be found under its correct nomenclature in the second volume of the Transactions of the Zoological 
Society, my published communication to which work, it will be seen, was made no less than twelve months prior to the appearance of my Narrative. 
