1775* an elk-antilope, in c o n fe q u e n c e o f w h i c h w e r e p a ir e d th i - December. . ^ ther, in order to carry oft the beft and fatteft part of the fleih. Before we got back to the waggon, darknefs came on, with thunder and lightning ; and, to add to the terror of the fcene, we heard the lions roaring very loud. Indeed we had good reafon to fear, that thefe wild beafts would throw themfelves in our way, in order to ihare our prey with us. Neither iliould we,, in facSt, in the total darknefs in which we were involved, have eafily found our way back to the waggon, i f the Hottentots whom we had left with it, had not been thoughtful and coniiderate enough to fmack the large ox-whip from time to time by way of iignal. At length, when we arrived at the plain where the waggon flood, we faw the fire they had made. We had hardly got home, however, before there came on a heavy ihower o f rain, which continued the greater part o f the night, and put out our fire ; while the tilt of our waggon was in great danger of being carried away by a violent fouth-eaft wind, with which the rain was accompanied ; at the fame time that the fain not Only entered the waggon by the fides o f the tilt, but likewife penetrated through the tilt-cloth, fo that we were not a whit better fheltered there, than the Hottentots under their cloaks. During all this, we frequently heard the roaring of the lions, as well as the yelling o f the hysenas; fome of which latter ftole away a ftrap belonging to the tackling o f our waggon, together with a good quantity of the fleih which the Hottentots had hung up at the diftance o f a few paces from the fpot where they lay. This This day the thermometer at five o’clock in the morning was at 74 degrees, precifely at noon at 99, and in the af- k/irO ternoon it rofe to 100. Oh the 24th I was induced to flay a little longer on this fpot, by the hopes of ihooting a gnu, which had been feen ranging by itfelf about this part of the country. Y’Gnu is the Hottentot name for a lingular animal, which, with refpeft to its form, is between the horfe and the ox. The fize of it is about that of a common galloway, the length o f it being fomewhat above five, and the height of it rather more than four feet. The proportion o f the parts to each other may he beft feen by the figure given in Plate II. o f this Volume, which reprefents this animal in the attitude into which it puts itfelf when it is going to butt any one; in confequence of which, we have been able to give a proper idea of the pofition o f the horns, and the manner in which they lay, as it were, flat upon the head : while, on the contrary, in a drawing which accompanies Profeflor A l l a m a n d ’s fine defcription of this creature, and which has been copied in a compilation, entitled, “ Nouvelle Defcription du Cap de B. Efperance, the horns appear almoft as i f they grew out of the mane itfelf. This animal is o f a dark-brown colour all over, excepting the tail and mane, which are o f a light-grey; the ihag on the chin, under thelower jaw, and on the breaft is black, as likewife are the ftiff hairs which ftand up erecfl on the forehead and upper part of the face. It is fomewhat fin- guiar, that M . A l l a m a n d , who was the firft that defcribed this fpecies of animal from one which was brought from the Cape to Holland, found the colour of its mane and body S 2 ' extremely
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