Grant’s Gazelle, Ugogo.
(From Speke’s ‘Journal of Discovery,’ p. 61.)
The original woodcut of Speke’s ‘Journal,’ drawn by Wolf, as shown by his initials, we have now the pleasure of reproducing by the kind favour of the publishers of that work. It was no doubt executed under Speke’s direction, and, although not quite satisfactory according to our present knowledge of the animal, gives several views of the shape and size of the horns of Grant’s Gazelle.
Although Speke in his ‘Journal’ writes of the Ugogo Antelope as being undoubtedly new, he was at first evidently by no means certain about this point, as in a letter addressed to Sclater from Kazeh, in February 1861, he referred it doubtfully to Gazella soemmerringi. But in a footnote to this letter (which was published in the ‘Proceedings’ of the Zoological Society for January 1863) Sclater stated his conviction that, so far as could be determined from the rough sketch of the horns which accompanied the letter, the Ugogo Antelope was certainly new, and he added that the late Dr. Gray was of the same opinion.
Fig. 77. Fig. 78.
Heads of Grant’s Gazelle, ♂ & ♀.
(From Mr. Jackson’s specimens.)
The box containing the specimens of the new Gazelle from Ugogo having been unfortunately lost on its journey to the coast, Sclater was unable to give any account of this animal in his paper on the Mammals collected and observed during the East-African Expedition, in the ‘Proceedings’ of the Zoological Society for 1864. The subject therefore was delayed until 1872, when Sir Victor Brooke, who was at that time busy upon the Antelopes, obtained from Col. Grant and Capt. Speke the careful sketches of the heads and skins of this animal which the travellers had made in their note-books. The examination of these sketches confirmed Brooke in the opinion that the Antelope represented by them was undoubtedly new to science; and consequently on April 16th of that year Sir Victor read a communication to the Zoological Society in which he proposed to name the new Gazelle after Grant, Speke’s name in this group of animals having been already commemorated by the Gazella spekei of Blyth and the Tragelaphus spekei of Sclater. Sir Victor gave as good a description of the new Antelope as he could from the notes before him, especially alluding to the extraordinary development of its horns, which attained dimensions nearly double those of any other Gazelle known to him. Brooke’s paper, which is accompanied by a beautiful coloured figure of the new Antelope, prepared by Wolf from Speke’s sketches, states that Col. Grant, who had supplied him with copious extracts from his note-books, informed him that this species was only met with during their expedition in Western Kinyenye, in Ugogo. The country inhabited by it he described as low-lying sandy plains, dotted over in some places with euphorbias, dwarf acacias, and stunted baobabs. The chief peculiarity of this district, owing doubtless to its comparatively low level, was the great accumulation of salt, which had of course a marked effect on the vegetation. Water at all times of the year was very scarce there, and often entirely absent, the little found being brackish and undrinkable.
In 1875 the Zoological Society received as a present from Sir John Kirk, then British Consul-General at Zanzibar, a living female Grant’s Gazelle, which, however, was unfortunately in very poor condition and died shortly after its arrival in London. The acquisition of this animal was announced by Sclater in a report on the additions to the Society’s Menagerie read on November 2nd of that year, and was accompanied by a figure of it drawn from the stuffed specimen by Mr. Smit. So far as we know, this is the only individual of Grant’s Gazelle that has ever reached Europe alive.