■775- portion than the bartbeejl, is the antilope feripta of. P a l - l a s , and the guib of B u f e c x n , . page 30$■— 3 ^7 - P ^ e XL. According, to A d a n s o n , it is very common at Senegal. I. will add, that the females of this fpecies have nix horns. The fame day I likewife faw, for the; firft time, whole troops of wild zebras, called by the oolonifts wilde'paarden? or wild horfes. They were feen in large herds, and ap>» peared very beautiful in their ftriped black, and white livery. It is the ikins o f thefe that are generally fold at our furriers fhaps by the abfurd name offea-horje hides. OJlricbes, or the birds whofe feathers our luxury brings from the remote!! plains of Africa, I likewife. faw to-day'in. their wild ftate, at the fouthernmoft promontory o f this quarter of. the globe. I fometimes came within, a^couple o f gun- ihots o f fome o f them, infomuch that I took it into my head to purfue them, but always without ihccefs... With their long legs and huge ftrides, they fcoured. away as fail: again as the untutored, horfe. and hunter could follow. They ran always with their wings extended,, probably by way o f preferying their balance; for they are not able in the leaifc to raife their heavy bodies, from, the ground. I: have fince been, told, that it is impoffihle for any man, even when, mounted on the heft hunter,, to catch them at firft fetting off, but that in a few minutes they will bound out o f fight. T h e hunter muft, notwithftanding, keep on his courfe,-but at times fpare his horfe, by keeping him from galloping too faft,. till fuch time as he can. fee the oftrich again from the top of fome hill.; the bird in. the mean time having run itfelf down, and afterwards growing femewhat cool, and cenfequently ftiff in its joints, has much ado to eicape; and never never fails, at leaft after the third courfe, either to be taken ',775 • nW; alive, or elfe to receive his death from the iportfman’s gun. In the like manner I chafed and fhot at the antrkrpes before fpoken of in vain; thefe animals having .a peculiar cuftom o f ftanding ftill at intervals during their flight, to -ftare at their purfuers a little, and wait for their coming up. This property, however, is not, as fome imagine, either peculiar to the genus of antilopes, or common to all the fpecies o f it; for I have feen buffaloes and wild affes (quaggas) fometimes make a ftand in the fame manner : on the other hand, fome of the fmaller kinds o f antilopes, as Jieenboks, klip-fpringers, riet-reebocks, and bofchboks, run without flopping, till they are out of the hunter’s fight. The Cape elks ■ (antilope oryx) o f which I have likewife given a de- fcription in the Swedifh Tranfa&ions, are faid, on account of the great demand there is for their fieih and hides, to be already extirpated from this part o f the country; and as foon as any others come from the inner diftridts, they are fhot diredtly, being in much greater re- queft, as well as eafier to hunt,; than the hartbeejls. Towards evening we came out upon a road, which carried us by two farms, and at laft, about dufk, to the warm bath. Juft before we got thither, we had left a road on. the left hand, which, we were told, led to Roodezand, Roggeveld, Bokveld, and Sneeberg. The ground we had gone over that day, was reckoned four hours 011 horfeback; and, as it appeared to me, was about four Swedilh, or twenty three Englifh miles. We had now been above feven hours driving at an even pace over this piece o f road. The way o f meafuring ground at the Cape, which is computed S 2 by
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