Next morning our party inspanned and treked over the desert plain in a
north-easterly direction. They were two days in crossing it, and their
oxen suffered much from thirst, as during the two days they did not
taste water. For themselves they had water enough. Part of the
contents of each wagon was a good water-cask, that held eighteen
gallons; and these, of course, they had filled before leaving the
spring. One of these casks they divided among their horses, allowing
them a little over two gallons apiece; but that was nothing for two
days' march over such a country. Even the yagers themselves required as
much. This statement would not surprise you, if you had ever travelled
in a tropical clime and over an arid waterless plain under a hot glaring
sun. There thirst is provoked in a short while, and water will quench
it only for a few minutes at a time. The appetite constantly returns,
and calls for copious draughts; so that a traveller will often consume
not glasses, but gallons, of water, in a single day!
Having crossed the desert plain, the hunters now entered upon a country
that differed entirely from that they had left behind.
They had arrived in a country of vast extent, upon which stood hills of
strange and varied forms. Some were of a rounded, hemispherical shape;
others were cones; others had flat-table tops; and still others pierced
the sky with sharp needle-like pinnacles. These hills were of various
sizes--some approaching the dimension of mountains; but most of them
rose directly from the plains, without any _piedmont_ or "foothills"
intervening between the level surface and their sloping or precipitous
sides. The country bore a very strong resemblance to the plateaux that
lie among the Cordilleras of the Andes; and the geological formation of
this part of Africa is very similar to the table-lands of Mexico.
Many of the mountains of conical and pyramid form stood isolated upon
the plain, some of them bare of vegetation from base to summit. Others,
again, carried a dark mantle of forest, that covered only their lower
half, above which rose bare peaks of white quartz that under the sun
glittered like snow.
The plains between were some of them of vast extent--so wide that at
times the mountains that bordered them could be but dimly seen. But
there were plains of every size and form. Their surface was covered
with a species of grass quite different from that of the region our
hunters had hitherto been passing over. It formed a short sward like a
meadow lately mown, or a well-browsed pasture-ground, for such in
reality it was--well-browsed and closely cropped, and trodden to a hard
turf, by the countless herds of wild ruminant animals, of which it was
the favourite range. Unlike the long flowing sweet grass upon the
plains south of the Orange River, these were covered with a short crisp
curly herbage of saltish taste; and in many spots an effervescence of
that mineral covered the ground, whitening the blades of grass like a
hoar-frost. Salt deposits, or salt-pans as they are termed, were also
common, some of them extending for miles over the plain.
The yagers had reached a peculiar country, indeed. They had arrived in
the "zuur-veldt," the country of the sour grass--the favourite home of
the _blesbok_ and _bontebok_.
What are these?
They are two antelopes, whose gracefulness of form, swiftness of foot,
but, above all, the lively and striking colour of their bodies, have
rendered remarkable.
They belong to the genus _Gazella_, but in many of their habits they
differ considerably from the gazelles, though differing so slightly from
each other that by both travellers and naturalists they have been
regarded identical.
This is not so. They are distinct species, though inhabiting the same
country, and following the same mode of life. The blesbok (_Gazella
albifrons_) is neither so large nor so brilliantly marked as the
bontebok, (_Gazella pygarga_). His horns are of a light colour, nearly
white, while those of the bontebok are black. In the colour of the legs
there is also a marked difference. The legs of the bontebok are white
from the knee down, while those of his congener are only white on the
insides--the outsides being brown.
The bontebok is not only one of the loveliest antelopes in Africa, but
one of the swiftest. Indeed, there are those who hold that he is _the
swiftest_. In size he equals the European stag, and his form is light
and graceful. His horns are fifteen inches in length, black, robust at
the base, semi-annulated and diverging. They rise erect from the top of
his head, bending slightly backward, and then forward at the tips.
But it is the beautiful colouring of his skin which is the principal
characteristic of this antelope. In this respect both he and the
blesbok bear some resemblance to the antelopes of the _acronotine_
group--the hartebeest and sassabye.
The colours of the bontebok are purple violet and brown of every shade--
not mingling together, but marking the body as if laid on by the brush
of a sign-painter. Hence the name "bontebok," or "painted buck," as
given by the Dutch colonists to this species. First, the neck and head
are of a deep brown, with a tinge of the colour of arterial blood.
Between the horns a white stripe commences, and after reaching the line
of the eyes widens out so as to cover the face to the very muzzle. This
mark, or "blaze," is common to both the species, and to one of them has
given the trivial name "blesbok," (blaze-buck.)
The back is of a blue lilac colour, as if glazed; and this extends along
the sides, so as to remind one of a saddle. Bordering this, and running
along the flanks, is a broad band of deep purple brown. The belly and
insides of the thighs are of pure white colour; the legs are white from
the knees down, and there is a large white patch on the croup. The tail
reaches to the hocks, and is tufted with black hair. Such is the colour
of the bontebok, and that of the blesbok differs from it only in the
points already mentioned, and in its colours being somewhat less marked
and brilliant. Both are beautiful creatures, and their skins are much
prized by the native savages for making the "kaross,"--a garment that
serves them both as a cloak by day and a bed and blankets at night.
The habits of both species are quite similar. They dwell upon the
plains of the "zuur-veldt," congregating in vast herds of many thousands
that cover the ground with their purple masses.
In this respect they resemble the springboks and other gazelles; but
they have habits peculiar to themselves. The springboks, when alarmed,
take to flight and scatter off in any direction, whereas the bonteboks
and blesboks invariably run against the wind, bearing their noses close
along the ground, like hounds upon a trail!
They are fleeter than springboks, and also more shy and wary, as though
they knew that their spoils are more valuable to the hunter, and
therefore required greater skill and speed to preserve them.
Both species were once common in what are now the settled districts of
South Africa, their range extending to the Cape itself. That is now
restricted to the "zuur-veldt" districts, north of the Great Orange
River.
A few bonteboks are still found within the colonial borders in the
district of Swellendam; but their existence there is accounted for by an
act of the Government, which places a fine of six hundred rix-dollars
upon any one who may destroy them without licence.
Our young yagers had now arrived in the land of the blesbok and
bontebok.