was very much foundered. This horfe, however, when it had got warm, was one of the fwifteft I ever fet eyes on. Neither are thefe hunting-parties without their difficulties, and even danger for the hunters themfelves; as befides that they cannot help fometimes being carried by their horfes through coppices and thickets, (in which cafe their legs are Scratched, and the ikirts of their coats torn by the buffies) and are obliged to leap over pits and rivulets, neither can they entirely avoid finking now and then into the holes and fubterraneous paffages, which are dug in the earth by the various kinds of animals I have defcribed above. In chafing the elk-antilope near little Fijh river in our way home on the firft of February, I had the misfortune,to have my horfe, which was galloping full fpeed, fink into the ground with his fore feet; in confequence of which he, as it appeared to me and my companions in the chafe, tumbled over head and heel, (gat over de kop.) I my- felf was thrown, with my gun in my hand, to a great difiance from him, and was particularly hurt in both my wrifts, of which I had not the perfect ufe for a long time. The gun, though it was cocked, did not go off in the fall. As foon as my horfe came up, he galloped home again to our waggons, which were in fight, fo that I had the additional mortification of being obliged to return on foot; a circumftance, which, in the cafe of hunting the buffalo or the lion, might have been attended with ftill worfe confequences. My companions were fo eager and intent on the chafe, that they all rode on without giving themfelves the trouble to fee whether I wanted any help or no. The The elk-antilopes, however, are none of them fo fleet as the bartbeejts; the hide likewife of the neck, particularly of that of the male, is thicker and tougher than either the hide of this latter or that o f the common ox ; and is looked upon, next to the buffalo’s hide, to be the fitteft for halters for oxen, traces for waggons, field-ihoes, and fuch like ufes. The female has horns, like the male, but fmaller; though they, as well as thofe of the male, áre ufed by the Hottentots, both men and women, for tobacco-pipes, in the manner I have before mentioned at page 230, Vol. I. (fee likewife Plate I. fig. 3. of the fame volume.) There is no porus febaceus, or ceriferus, at the corner of the eye of this: animal, as there is in the eye of the gnu and of the hart- beeji. I obferved a very fingular circumftance in the laft elk we fhot, which was, that on each fide o f its eight front teeth, there was a cártilaginous procefs exactly refembling- a tufk. Thefe proceffes were fomewhat flexible and elaftic; in fatft, they did not feem at all adapted to maftication, fo that it was difficult to conjecture for what purpofe they werei intended by nature. In the live young elk that I made a; drawing of, it did not once enter into my thoughts to examine how things were fituated with refpeót to this, procefs. Koedoe i s th e n am e g iv e n b y .the c o lo n if t s to a b e a u t i fu l ta ll gazel w i t h lo n g an d { le n d e r ih a n k s , w h i c h is la r g e r , t h o u g h m u c h le fs c lu m f y and h e a v y , th a n th e elk-antilope. T h e h o rn s to o o f th e koedoe, b e fid e s th a t th e fp ir a l tw i f t o n th em is m o r e d e e p ly em b o ffe d , and is em b e lli ih e d w i t h a; f in g u la r ly p r om in e n t e d g e , o r r i b , , are tw i c e as lo n g as th e- h o rn s o f t h e , e lk . M. d e B u f f o n , w h o h a s fe e n th e horns .. o n ly / 1776. January, . I l l i& i
27f 72-2
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