>775- ther into one herd, and, on hearing the report of niy piece, December. formed a line, at the fame time making a circular movement, as-i f they would iurround us, but immediately afterwards flew o ff to a different fide to that which they came from. In the Bokke-Velds, as they are called, thefe animals are found in great numbers, and iometimes at PooderZand. A great many of this fpecies are kept in the governor’s menagerie. And yet, -though as beautiful as it is common, there has not been hitherto any tolerable drawing given of this animal; and much is ftill wanting, to the perfedtion of its hiftory and defcription. On this occafion I cannot help exprefling my aftoniihment, that the mammalia, or quadrupeds, the chief branch o f the principal kingdom of nature, a branch, indeed, which comprehends man himfelf, ihould be fo little known, and neverthelefs fo little ftudied by him. By the negledt of this ftudy have lions, tigers, and other wild beafts, at leaft in Africa, without controul committed their ravages in the animal kingdom. Nay, they have, as we have already remarked, confined man himfelf within certain limits, fo that he even cannot help trembling for fear o f them in his own habitation. As to this gazel in particular, it deferves, as indeed do all the works of the Creator, to Be. eonfidered with all the precifion and minutenefs of which the fubjedt is capable, that in it we may the better learn to’ kno.w and adore the great Matter of the Univerfe. It appears, indeed, that felf-love, which ufually has fo great a fway with us, ihould induce us to take this ftep; for thefe gazels ought, for the general advantage of mankind, to be made tame, and tended in the places where they they now go to graze expofed to the ravages of lions, of December. which animals, in fadt, tljey feem to be the peculiar pro- perty; and may be aptly termed, according to the expref- fion of the Hottentots, their, flocks of iheep. In the mean while, it is incumbent upon me to. give previoufly to this, a tolerably accurate defcription of this animal, and communicate to the public what information I have got concerning the nature of it and its manners. The height of it is two feet and a half; from the tip of the nofe to the horns are feven inches; from the horns to the ears two; from the ears to the tail three feet three inches; the tail itfelf being fomewhat lefs than a foot long; the length of the ears is fix inches and a half; that of the horns, meaiuring them along their curvatures, is feven inches ; the thicknefs of them at the bafe is two inches three quarters ; and the diftance of them from each other at that part one inch. After that they feparate, as is fhewn in the figure (vide Vol. II. Plate V.>more and more, till at about three-fourths of their length they.ftand at the diftance of five inches from each other, when they turn inwards; fo that the tips of them at laffi come within three inches and a half o f each other. This appears to me to be the moft general way,, in which their horns are bent. In the fame animals of this kind in the governor’s menagerie I obferved, however, that they varied greatly, info- much that fome of thefe creatures horns were bent forwards, like the naguer of B u f f o n , Tom. XII. Tab. XXXIV. In others again, they were turned back. This it is the more neceffary to mention, as otherwife, by fuch variations in the horns, zoologifts might be induced to make
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