GNU.
The Gnu, sometimes called the Gnu Antelope, inhabits Southern Africa. It is about the size of a Donkey, and is curiously formed. Added to its muscular and thick-set body, it has the muzzle of an Ox, the legs of a Stag, and the neck, shoulders and rump of a small Horse. Its head is flattened, and its brown hair is short. On its neck it has a mane of white, grey and black hair, and under its chin hangs a thick brown beard. It also has horns, something like those of the Cape Buffalo, which first bend downwards and then curve in an upward direction. It is not surprising with such a queer combination, that strange stories were told of this animal in the past, as it has the appearance of being made up of various portions of several other animals.
These strangely constructed animals are found in the mountainous districts to the north of the Cape of Good Hope, and probably throughout a large portion of Africa. They are very wild, and are swift runners and may be seen skimming along in single file following one of their number as a guide.
THE GOATS.
These animals differ among themselves to a wonderful extent in their shape, their color and even in the texture of their fleece. The Goats of Angora in Cappadocia are provided with a soft and silky clothing. Those of Thibet have become celebrated for the delicacy of a kind of wool which grows among their hair, from which Cashmere shawls are manufactured. In Upper Egypt is a race remarkable for the roughness of their coat, while the Goats of Guinea and of Judea are distinguished by the smallness of their dimensions, and by their horns, which are pointed backwards. But whatever may be the cause of these peculiarities, the whole race seems to retain the characters derivable from a mountain origin; they are robust, capricious, and vagabond; they prefer dry hills and wild localities, where they can procure only the coarsest herbage, or browse upon the shrubs and bushes. They are likewise very injurious in forests, where they destroy the young trees by devouring the bark. Their flesh is strong and rank, so that they are seldom eaten; nevertheless, their milk is an article of diet, and the Kid, while young, is tender and nutritious.
THE COMMON GOAT.
The Common Goat inhabits wild and mountainous regions in a state of semi-wildness, seeming to have little regard either for the protection or the neglect of people resident in its vicinity; but although not cared for, like its not very distant relative, the Sheep, it is by no means without its value. The Goat affords milk in considerable abundance; its hair, though more harsh than wool, is useful in the manufacture of various kinds of stuffs, and its skin is more valuable than that of the sheep. The Goat has more intelligence than the Sheep, and soon becomes familiar and attached; it is light, active, and less timid than the Sheep; it is capricious and loves to wander, to climb steep mountains, sleeping frequently on the point of a rock or the edge of a precipice. It is robust, and will feed on almost any plant. It does not, like the Sheep, avoid the mid-day heat, but sleeps in the sunshine, and exposes itself willingly to its full glare. It is not alarmed by storms, but appears to suffer from a great degree of cold.
THE IBEX.
The Ibex combines with the characters of the Goat the agility and fleetness of the Antelopes. “All readers of natural history,” says Col. Markham, “are familiar with the wonderful climbing and saltatory powers of the Ibex; and although they cannot (as has been described in print) make a spring and hang on by the horns until they gain a footing, yet in reality for such heavy animals they get over the most inaccessible-looking places in an almost miraculous manner. Nothing seems to stop them nor to impede their progress in the least. To see a flock, after being fired at, take a distant line across country, which they often do over all sorts of seemingly impassable ground, now along the naked surface of an almost perpendicular rock, then across a formidable landslip or an inclined plane of loose stones or sand, which the slightest touch sets in motion both above and below, dividing into chasms to which there seems no possible outlet, but instantly reappearing on the opposite side, never deviating in the slightest from their course, and at the same time getting over the ground at the rate of something like fifteen miles an hour, is a sight not to be easily forgotten.”