When writing on the hunting of these creatures, known in South Africa as the Impoofo, the same author remarks that, “notwithstanding the unwieldy shape of these animals, they had at first greatly exceeded the speed of our jaded horses, but being pushed they soon separated; their sleek coats turned first blue and then white with froth; the foam fell from their mouths and nostrils, and the perspiration from their sides. Their pace gradually slackened, and with their full brilliant eyes turned imploring towards us, at the end of a mile, each was laid low by a single bullet.”
With reference to these animals, the Hon. W. H. Drummond tells us that “more Eland are killed from horseback than on foot; for as it is utterly out of the question to make a practice of running them down, and as they generally inhabit the treeless flats, where they cannot, except by chance, be stalked, while the uncertainty of their movements and their keeping out of cover render it impossible to find them, like the large animals, by the aid of their spoor, some more certain method is needed than the chance meetings which occur to the hunter when in pursuit of other game, more especially as their hide is held in great repute by the Dutch colonists, who make trek-tows for their wagons, and reins for their oxen from it, even preferring it to that of a Buffalo. The demand thus induced has so diminished their numbers as to have restricted this noble Antelope to a few favoured localities, even in which it is becoming more scarce every day, while not many years ago it formed a component part of almost every landscape in the southern and eastern portions of Africa.”
THE KOODOO.[14]
KOODOO.
This is one of the handsomest of all the Antelopes. It is more slender in build and smaller than the Eland, which it somewhat resembles. The horns are about four feet long, and form most graceful open spirals like corkscrews, there being a ridge along their whole length. The females are hornless. The ear is large and trumpet-shaped, moved at the slightest noise towards its source. The eyes are large and liquid. The body colour is slaty-grey, with transverse white markings, like those on the striped variety of the Eland. A small mane extends along the neck and withers, and another from the chin to the throat and breast. The tail is of moderate length, and hairy. This species is most abundant in Southern Africa, but it extends as high as Abyssinia. It is able to travel with very great speed, and makes prodigious bounds. It stands about five feet in height at the shoulders.
“Majestic in its carriage,” writes Captain Harris, with all the enthusiasm of a true sportsman, “and brilliant in its colour, this species may with propriety be styled the king of the tribe. Other Antelopes are stately, elegant, or curious, but the solitude-seeking Koodoo is absolutely regal! The ground colour is a lively French grey approaching to blue, with several transverse white bands passing over the back and loins: a copious mane, and deeply fringed, tricoloured dewlap, setting off a pair of ponderous yet symmetrical horns, spirally twisted, and exceeding three feet in length. These are thrown along the back as the stately wearer dashes through the mazes of the forest or clambers the mountain-side. The old bulls are invariably found apart from the females, which herd together in small troops, and are destitute of horns.”
ANGAS’ HARNESSED ANTELOPE.[15]
This elegant animal, much like the Koodoo in its proportions, stands three feet four inches high at the shoulders. In the male, which alone bears horns, these appendages are nearly two feet long, twisted and sub-lyrate, having sharply-pointed tips of a pale straw colour, their other parts being of a brownish-black, deeply ridged for half their length from their bases. The colour of the body is greyish-black, tinged with purplish-brown and ochre, white transverse stripes, like those of the Koodoo, being present on the neck, flanks, and cheeks. A black mane courses down the neck, whilst from the neck and belly depends long shaggy hair in abundance, reaching to the knees. The ears are large, and the face is of a bright sienna-brown. The tail is one foot eight inches long, black above, with under side and tip white. The female is small, and of a bright rufous colour, with transverse stripes more numerous than in the male.