when prancing over thé plains. The gnoo might be confidered
asan emblem o f unbounded freedom with the means of fup-
porting it. Strength, fwiftnefs, weapons:of defence, a nice
nofe, and a quick fight, it eminently poffeffes. No fuccefsful
attempts have yet been made to tame it. The flefh is fo like
that of an ox, both in appearance and tañe, that it is not to be
diftinguiihed from it.
The heavy lumpifli figure of the eland formed a great con-
traft with the elegant ihape o f the gnoo. The former were not
lefs numerous than the latter, and as eafily taken as the other
was difficult. Of all the fpecies of antelopes in Southern Africa
this is by much the largeft and the moft aukward. The head,
the thick neck, and dewlap o f the male, the body, legs, and
hoofs, are bovine. The horns and tail only indicate its affinity
to the antelope tribe. Its habit, its gait, its fize, and general
appearance, are thofe of the ox. The gnoo when wounded becomes
furious and turns upon his purfuer ; and he is faid to be
fo impatient o f pain and danger, that, in order to put a fpeedy
end to them, he will frequently fly to a pit o f water and drown
himfelf. The eland is altogether as mild and patient. On account
of the great eafe with which they are taken, the utility
of their flefh as food, and o f their ikins for harnefs and traces,
few o f them now remain within the limits o f the colony ; and
in a few years the eland will in all probability be a rare beaft
in the fouthern angle o f Africa. The rude farmers who, like
children, grafp only at the gratification of the moment, without
any regard to futurity, are taking the beft means in the world
to haften their extirpation. The bull, being much larger, fatter,
ter, and having a tougher hide, than the female, is always fe-
ledted from the herd and hunted down; the confequence of
which is, that numbers of herds are now met with confifting of
females only. They are very fubjedl alfo to a cutaneous difeafe
that makes great havoc among the bovine, tribe. It is
called by the farmers the brandt ficktd, or burning difeafe. It
generally makes its appearance among the cattle towards the end
of the rainy feafon. The hair begins to fall o ff; the {kin is
covered with fcurf and fcabs; the joints become itiff, and the
animal languifhes, confumes, and dies. All the antelopes are
more or lefs fubjedt to it, but chiefly fo the gnoo, the hartebeeft,
and the eland, thefe approaching neareft to the nature of the
ox. The plains were ftrewed with the ikeletons of thefe and
other animals that had fallen by the difeafe. The eland of the
Cape is the areas of the Syjiema Natures, and the Indian antelope
of Pennant. The male of one we lhot meafured ten feet and
a half in length, and fix feet and a half in height.
Upon the plains of the Sea-Cow river were fpringboks in
countlefs troops, hartebeefts, and boriteboks. The laft antelope
is marked the fame as the fcr ijta of the Syjiema Natures; but
the brown color is darker and the animal confiderably fmaller
than the bontebok of Zwellendam. Quachas from fifty to a
hundred in a troop were hourly feen. The fmaller kinds of
game were alfo very plentiful. Hares were continually among
the horfes’ feet. O f this animal are four known fpecies in or
near the colony ; the common hare, the Cape hare, the mountain
hare, and the red-rumped hare. O f the laft, the exterior
part