NOTES ON THE GEMSBUCK
Number of African antelopes--The eland--Roan and sable antelopes--The
greater koodoo--Other antelopes--The gemsbuck--Limited
range--Habitat--Keen sight--Speed and endurance--Chase
after four gemsbucks--Two shot--Sight of vultures--Oxen
frightened--Horse wounded by lioness--Gemsbuck bull shot--Visit
from natives--Gemsbucks and zebras--Gemsbucks ridden to a
standstill--Fine specimens shot--Length of horns--Character of the
gemsbuck--Probably unaffected by the rinderpest--Likely to survive
for long time.
There is such a wealth of splendid-looking antelopes to be found on
the great African continent that it is hard, nay, impossible to say
which amongst them is the grandest prize of all that can fall to a
hunter's rifle. In bulk nothing approaches the eland, and an old bull
of this species, with his massive form, low-hanging dewlap, and great
neck surmounted by a striking and beautifully proportioned head, is in
truth a noble animal, but at the same time one that looks fitter in
every way to adorn a park than to be hunted to the death. The eland is,
in fact, one of those beasts that ought to have been trained to the
service of man, and would have been in all probability had it existed
in Asia instead of in Africa. Such an animal few can slay without a
certain feeling of regret, for even when desperately wounded, nothing
but reproach can be read in its mild dark eyes.
How different is the quiet resignation shown by the dying eland to the
fierce defiance of every look and gesture of a roan or sable antelope
brought to bay and fighting desperately to the very last. These two
latter animals are amongst the finest of all the African antelopes, and
by many sportsmen the last named is considered the noblest of them all.
The magnificent greater koodoo, too, has many warm admirers, whilst the
inyala, lesser koodoo, and Grant's gazelle, if not amongst the grandest
of the several genera to which they belong, are certainly some of the
most beautiful.
But there is yet another species, whose praises have of late years
been sung by few, the successful pursuit of which has always given me
more satisfaction than that of any other of the larger antelopes of
Southern Africa. This is the gemsbuck, the grandest of all the handsome
oryx family. Cornwallis Harris, Gordon Cumming, Oswell, Baldwin, and
others of those fortunate Englishmen who travelled and hunted in South
Africa when the last century was only middle-aged have all written
enthusiastically of the chase of the gemsbuck and the joy of securing a
good head of this species.
But with the spread of European settlements and the steady advance of
civilisation, these beautiful animals have been driven from many of
their former haunts, and are now only to be found in the most arid
districts of Western South Africa; and though their range extends
from the north-western portion of the Cape Colony in the south to the
southern part of the Portuguese province of Angola in the north, there
can, I think, be but few districts left where they are to be met with
at the present day in anything but small and widely scattered herds. At
least, a herd of about fifteen is the greatest number that I have ever
seen together, though it must be remembered that I have only met with
the gemsbuck in the more easterly portions of its range, and it is
quite possible that in the recesses of the Kalahari it may at certain
seasons of the year collect into larger droves than anything that I
have ever seen.
Compared with other South African game, I have shot but
few gemsbuck--only twenty-five, I find by reference to my
note-books--partly because I have done the greater part of my hunting
in the more easterly parts of the country where these animals are
unknown, but also for the reason that even when in countries where they
existed I never found them anything but scarce.
The gemsbuck, as I have said before, is an inhabitant of Western South
Africa, and lives and thrives in parts of the country where not only
are there no running streams, but where for months together every
year there is absolutely no surface water at all. In such districts
there are almost limitless expanses of level plains covered with low
scrub and thorny bush studded with small glittering white salt-pans,
and intersected by forest-covered country, with sometimes a thick
undergrowth amongst the trees, and it is in such surroundings that the
gemsbuck is at home.
As a rule, they confine themselves to the arid, scrub-covered plains,
but sometimes wander into the forests. If the sun is not shining full
upon them--when they look almost white--the pale grey colour of their
coats harmonises wonderfully well with all their surroundings, for the
soil on which they stand is generally much the colour of their hides,
whilst the parched and thorny scrub around them is always of a pale
neutral tint, for it is usually leafless, and even when in leaf the
leaves are rather grey than green.
Like the striping of the zebra, the brilliant black and white markings
of the gemsbuck's face can be plainly seen when near at hand, but
are inconspicuous at any distance over four hundred yards, and the
presence of these animals is often first betrayed by the sun glinting
on their long black horns. The sight of the gemsbuck is very keen, and
the Bushmen say that, like the ostrich, he trusts more to this sense
for his safety than to scent, which is no doubt the case as long as he
is in country of an open character. There is no more splendid sight
than that of a herd of gemsbucks galloping over the arid wastes of
their desert home; for, owing to the fact that the cows have longer
horns than the bulls, every individual member of the herd looks as if
it carried a head worth winning. They run at a steadier pace than any
other animal with which I am acquainted, holding their heads rather
low, so that their long black horns stand well up, only slanting
slightly backwards. As they gallop, their long bushy black tails almost
sweep the ground, as they swing from side to side.
In comparing the speed and endurance of various species of South
African antelopes, it is first of all necessary to eliminate all cows
heavy with calf, as these are so heavily handicapped that they do not
afford any criterion of the real powers, under ordinary circumstances,
of the species to which they belong. Every one who has ridden after
sable and roan antelopes in August or September knows how easy it is at
that time of year to bring the heavier cows to a standstill, but I have
never yet been able to gallop down a bull of either species, though I
have had many a good try.
The gemsbuck is often spoken of as the fleetest and most enduring of
all the South African antelopes. My own experience is not sufficient to
justify me in dogmatising on this subject, but all those I have shot
I have galloped after, and I have also had a considerable experience
in riding after most other South African antelopes; and my verdict
is, that although gemsbuck run with great speed and endurance, they
are inferior in these respects to the tsessebe, Cape hartebeest,
Lichtenstein's hartebeest, blue and black wildebeest, and to the
blesbok. I should put their running powers much on a par with those of
the sable and roan antelope.
Gemsbucks being usually found in open country, as a rule get a good
start, and I can well believe that a man mounted on a horse in low
condition or only grass-fed would never get up to them at all; but a
good South African shooting pony, in hard condition and fed regularly
morning and evening on maize, ought to carry a twelve-stone man up to a
herd of gemsbucks every time.
I have twice found gemsbucks in company with a herd of Burchell's
zebras, and on both occasions in very open ground. On sighting me
the former animals at once took the lead and galloped off, closely
followed by the latter. On the first occasion they had a long start,
and husbanding my horse, I only drew up to them gradually. There were
only four gemsbucks--three cows and a bull--and about a dozen zebras;
and these latter, when I at length drew up within a hundred yards,
entirely prevented my getting a shot at the more coveted game. The
horse I was riding had a very good turn of speed, so I then let him out
as hard as he could go, and galloped right through the zebras, which
scattered to either side of me, and then reforming in one herd, went
off by themselves. The gemsbucks were now going at their utmost speed,
and when I had passed the zebras were still sixty or seventy yards in
front of me. The bull was only to be distinguished from the cows by
his somewhat heavier build and shorter though stouter horns. Pulling
my horse in as quickly as possible, I jumped to the ground, and aiming
for the centre of the black patch which bedecks the hind-quarters of
these antelopes, fired. My shot, as it turned out, struck him exactly
right, an inch or so above the root of the tail, and must have broken
or injured the vertebral column, as his hind-quarters gave way at once,
bringing the doomed animal into a sitting position, from which he was
unable to recover himself. My after-rider, a light-weight Griqua lad,
was now close up behind me, so shouting to him to despatch the bull
(whose head I wanted for my own collection), I galloped on after the
cows, the best of which I wished to secure for our National Museum of
Natural History, for which I had already got a good bull.
[Illustration: "THE GEMSBUCKS WERE NOW GOING AT THEIR UTMOST SPEED, AND
WHEN I HAD PASSED THE ZEBRAS WERE STILL SIXTY OR SEVENTY YARDS IN FRONT
OF ME."]
They had now, however, got a long start, and as the chase soon led
me across a succession of broad sandy ridges entirely free from all
vegetation but a little coarse grass, the going became terribly heavy,
and I began to think I should never get within shooting distance again.
At last, however, the gemsbucks got out of the heavy sand and raced
into a broad open plain, where the ground was fairly firm. They were
still going strong, and were some three hundred yards ahead of me. I
now made what I knew would have to be my last effort, and gradually
drew nearer and nearer to the hindmost antelope, until at length I
was not more than 120 yards behind it. Just then the leading gemsbuck
swerved somewhat to the left, and the other two following in its
tracks, gave me--for I had pulled in and jumped to the ground directly
I saw the leader turn--a somewhat better chance for a shot than had
been offered as long as the chase had remained exactly tail-on-end. Had
I missed I should have pulled in and given up the hunt, as I did not
want to overtire my horse; but I distinctly heard the bullet tell, and
so remounted and galloped on again. For the next half-mile the wounded
animal showed no signs of being hit, but held on close behind her
companions. Presently, however, she began to fall behind, and suddenly
coming to a halt, turned broadside and stood looking at her pursuer.
She let me ride up to within fifty yards of her without moving, and it
was only when, after having pulled in and dismounted, I had given her
a shot through the heart, that she made a short rush forward and then
rolled over dead.
I was now at least two miles from where I had disabled the bull, and as
I knew that it would be a long time before my after-rider could come
up with the Bushmen, I set to work to skin the animal just killed. She
was a beautiful beast, but it was a terribly hot job skinning so large
an animal without any assistance in the open shadeless plain, for it
was already past midday and the heat of the sun was simply intense,
and I was somewhat hungry and very thirsty as well, since I had left
my waggon (which was standing at a pool of water on the road between
Bamangwato and the Mababi) just at daybreak. At last my task was ended,
and I then disembowelled the carcase of the dead antelope, and covered
it as well as I could with dry grass, an operation that took some time,
as grass only grew in scanty tussocks anywhere near at hand. I was also
careful to throw sand over all the blood-stains on the ground, these
precautions being necessary to keep off vultures, for although none of
these birds were at the moment in sight, I was afraid that they might
collect and destroy the meat after I had left, and before the Bushmen
came for it.
I have satisfied myself over and over again that, in South Africa at
least, vultures are guided to their food entirely by sight, and not
at all by scent; for should an animal be killed in the midst of dense
bush, it will often lie there for days, untouched by vultures, no
matter how many of these birds may be circling about overhead; but
unless the carcase of an animal killed on an open plain should be
quickly hidden from view with branches of trees or grass, it will not
remain long unvisited, for one or other of the vultures constantly
flying round, perhaps at such a height as to be invisible to the human
eye, is sure to spy it ere long, and then--something in its mode of
flight no doubt suggesting that it is bent on serious business--is
itself seen and followed by others, which in their turn are observed,
till all the vultures in the neighbourhood are presently assembled at
the feast. The Bushmen say that it is useless covering up a carcase and
leaving blood-stains on the ground round about, as vultures can see
these signs of slaughter at an incredible distance, and will always
come down to investigate such tell-tale marks, whether the meat of the
slain animal has been removed or not.
Having secured the skin of the gemsbuck (with the skull and leg-bones
still attached) to my saddle, I commenced to lead my horse along his
back tracks, but had not proceeded far when I met my after-rider, who,
after having despatched the gemsbuck bull, had followed me up with half
a dozen of the Bushmen. These latter I sent on to bring in the meat of
the cow, and they overtook us again just as we had finished cutting up
the bull. It was late in the afternoon when we got back to the waggon,
but after a good meal, washed down with the best part of a kettleful
of tea, I set to work, and before turning in got the headskin of the
bull, as well as the complete skin of the cow, cleaned and prepared for
mounting, with arsenical soap. The latter now stands in the Mammalian
Gallery of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, and the
former is in my own collection.
As there was but little game in the desert country surrounding the pool
where I was encamped--nothing, in fact, but a few giraffes, ostriches,
gemsbucks, springbucks, and hartebeests--and the Bushmen had told me
that there were absolutely no lions in the district, I had allowed my
cattle, donkeys, and horses to feed and lie loose at nights. On this
evening I was lying reading in the waggon after having prepared the
gemsbuck skins, when I suddenly heard my troop of cattle (some thirty
in number, including cows) galloping. They must have been feeding
or lying down a few hundred yards behind the waggon, when something
startled them and they came rushing towards the waggon in a solid
phalanx; but on the driver and some of the boys running towards them
and shouting, they halted close down to the edge of the pool. That
something had frightened them, there could be no doubt, and as I have
never known oxen show any fear of hyænas, I couldn't help thinking
that, in spite of what the Bushmen had said, there was a lion about. I
therefore had my oxen at once tied up, and taking the lantern, called
up some of the Bushmen and went out to look for the rest of my live
stock. We soon found the two horses that had been ridden that day and
the donkeys, but of my third horse, a very powerful stallion, we could
find no trace, though he had had his feed of maize at sundown with the
others. I went back to the waggon, therefore, feeling very anxious
about him.
At daylight the next morning I saddled up my best horse, and
accompanied by some of the Bushmen, rode round to the spot from which
the oxen had stampeded. The ground was very hard, as the pool of water
by which we were encamped was situated in a limestone formation, and
for some time we could discover nothing; but on riding back along the
waggon track for about a mile to sandy ground, we there at once found
the spoor of a lion, or more probably a lioness, as the tracks looked
small. These tracks even the Bushmen were unable to follow over the
limestone; but about a mile away on the other side of the pool we found
the stallion lying down, and soon discovered that he had been both
bitten and clawed during the night. I believe that his assailant must
have been a very old and weakly lioness, which had found him lying
down and attacked him whilst he was in that position. He had been
somewhat severely bitten in the back of the neck, and clawed on the
left shoulder and in both flanks, but being a very powerful animal,
he had managed to throw his assailant off. I at once syringed out the
stallion's wounds with a very strong cauterising solution of carbolic
acid, and they never sloughed at all, but healed up very rapidly,
though if the bite of a lion is not cauterised it takes a long time to
heal.
The strangest part of this experience is that I never saw or heard
anything more of this lion or lioness. With a dozen of the finest
trackers in the world to help me, nothing could be done on the hard
limestone ground, which in one direction extended for miles; nor,
though I remained in the same camp for a week, did the baffled beast
ever make any further attempt to interfere with my cattle. Possibly the
stallion, after shaking his assailant off, had given him or her a kick.
The Bushmen told me that this was the first lion that had visited the
neighbourhood of their camp for years, though a lion and lioness had
together killed a cow giraffe near another permanent water, some thirty
miles to the west, about a month before. No doubt the brute that had
attacked my stallion--probably an old and half-famished lioness--had
come a long way on the spoor of my cattle.
I secured my most beautiful gemsbuck head in April 1888, in the desert
country between the lower course of the Nata river and the northern
extremity of the great Makari-kari Salt-pan.
On the previous day I had come across a solitary bull in an open
rolling sandy plain, destitute of any kind of vegetation but coarse
tussocky grass. Owing to the very open nature of the ground in which I
found him, this gemsbuck spied me from afar and went off with a very
long start. I was, however, very well mounted, and after a long and
exciting chase, at length got within shot of and killed him. Whilst
racing along in full pursuit of this bull, I had seen in the distance
quite a large herd of gemsbucks, and as I knew that there must be some
fine heads among them, I had half a mind to take up their tracks later
in the day, but gave up the idea, as I only had a sufficient number of
Bushmen with me to carry the meat of the animal already shot.
On arriving at my waggon, I found a party of Matabele Kafirs there who
had come to the Makari-kari to collect rock salt, which they find there
deposited in layers a couple of inches in thickness. This rock salt
is reddish brown in colour, and very impure, containing apparently a
great deal of lime. Although most of these Matabele carried guns, they
told me they had scarcely seen a head of game since leaving home, and
having shot nothing, had consequently had nothing to eat, after they
had exhausted the small stock of grain with which they had started on
their journey, but berries and tortoises, eked out with whatever they
had been able to steal from the Bushmen. They certainly looked half
starved, and on my presenting them with a hind-leg of the gemsbuck I
had just shot, they very speedily devoured it, and then begged me to
try and shoot them something on the following day, that they might lay
in a stock of meat for their journey back to Matabeleland.
I promised to do my best for them, and at daylight the next morning,
accompanied by a dozen Matabele and several Bushmen, rode out in
search of the herd of gemsbucks I had seen the previous day whilst
chasing the bull. We took up their yesterday's tracks, and after
following them for several hours, found that they had joined company
with a herd of Burchell's zebras, with which animals they were still
feeding when we at last overtook them. There were about fifteen
gemsbucks (the largest number of these animals I have ever seen
together) and as many zebras. The country where we found them being
perfectly open, they, of course, saw us when we were still a long way
off, and at once went off, with a long start, the gemsbucks leading and
the zebras running close behind them.
The horse I was riding--the same with which I had chased the gemsbuck
bull on the previous day--was one of the finest shooting horses I ever
owned, and though no longer young, was both fast and possessed of great
staying power. He was, too, a wonderfully sure-footed animal, and just
now in splendid hard condition. Had the zebras been alone, they would
have gone off at a leisurely pace, but being led by the gemsbucks,
they kept close on their heels. These latter animals, according to my
experience, when disturbed never run off in a leisurely way, nor even,
if not pressed, do they keep stopping and looking back at their pursuer
like almost all other antelopes, but go off at once at such a tearing
pace, that although it is not the utmost speed they are capable of
when hard pressed, is yet sufficiently fast to make it impossible to
get near them at all without hard galloping. Owing to the long start
they had got, I daresay I had galloped two, perhaps three, miles before
my horse had carried me close up behind the zebras. These latter,
running well together some fifty yards behind the gemsbucks, raised
a tremendous dust, and, as in the former instance I have described,
effectually hid the long-horned antelopes from my view. In fact, it was
quite impossible to shoot a gemsbuck without passing the zebras. This
I set myself to do, and before long I was galloping alongside of the
hindmost animals, keeping above the wind so as to escape the dust they
raised as much as possible.
In another few moments I think I should have fairly galloped past
all the zebras, but they did not wait for me to do so, for suddenly
the whole troop of them swerved off down wind and left me alone with
the gemsbucks. These latter were all cows, and most of them carried
good heads, but the horns of one seemed specially long and thin, and
these I determined to secure. For some time, however, she kept well in
front, and I could not get a chance of a shot at her, as she was always
covered by one or other of her companions. When I passed the zebras,
the gemsbucks were, I believe, going at their utmost speed, and I had
kept them at it for another half-mile or so, when suddenly one of them
swerved out from the rest, and facing round, came to a halt. I passed
within ten yards of her, and she stood looking at me as I passed, and
as she remained in the same place for some time, I think I may fairly
say that she was ridden to a standstill. She appeared to be a fine
full-grown cow, and was probably in calf; but as it would have been at
least six months before she would have dropped her calf, this could
hardly have affected her running powers. This is the second gemsbuck I
have overtaken on horseback, the first having been a bull (with only
one horn) which I fairly rode to a standstill in 1879.
At last I got a good chance at the long-horned cow as she swerved off
to one side in the van of the herd, and my bullet, hitting her at the
back of the ribs, and ranging forwards to the neighbourhood of the
heart, brought her to the ground dead before she had run another
hundred yards. She was indeed a beautiful animal, and her horns the
handsomest, though by no means the longest, that I have ever seen. They
were most perfectly symmetrical, and measured 43 inches in length; but
being very thin and absolutely straight--gemsbuck horns usually have a
slight turn backwards--looked longer than they actually were.
In 1879 I shot another gemsbuck cow near the Botletlie river with horns
of exactly the same length; but these latter, being much thicker and
having a strong bend backwards, do not look their full length. I think
that I am correct in saying that gemsbuck horns measuring over 42
inches in length are quite exceptional. At any rate, I only remember
to have seen three pairs exceeding 43 inches. The one measuring 44-1/2
inches was shot by a Boer on the Botletlie river, and I purchased it
from him for our Natural History Museum, where it now is; whilst I
have seen another pair slightly longer which was shot in the Kalahari
many years ago by the late Mr. W. Cotton Oswell. But the longest pair
I have ever seen I found in the possession of a trader at Barclay West
in December 1880. He told me that he had got them from a native hunter
at Moroquain in the Southern Kalahari, and gave them to me, and I gave
them to the late Mr. J. S. Jameson. I believe that this is the longest
pair of gemsbuck horns known, their length being recorded in Mr.
Rowland Ward's last book of horn measurements as 47-1/2 inches. Besides
these heads I have mentioned, a few more pairs are known in various
collections which measure between 44 and 46 inches, but these are a
few exceptionally long pairs that have been picked out in the course
of many years from amongst the large number of gemsbuck horns which
are annually shot by natives in different parts of the vast Kalahari
desert, and brought either to Kimberley or to Cape Town _viâ_ Walfisch
Bay; and these few exceptions to the general rule only serve to show
how very rarely gemsbuck horns attain to a length of 44 inches and
upwards. The horns of the bulls sometimes attain a length of 42 inches,
but are, as a rule, several inches shorter and a good deal stouter than
those of the cows.
Although gemsbucks, when brought to bay, are doubtless dangerous
antagonists to dogs, and very possibly sometimes kill lions which have
attacked them incautiously, I should doubt their being as fierce an
animal by nature as either the sable or roan antelope. At least, I
have never seen any of those I have wounded make the same threatening
demonstrations as the last-named animals always do when closely
approached. I once fired at a bull gemsbuck which was galloping
obliquely past me, and dropped him instantly, and as he was still
lying motionless when I cantered up to him, I thought he was dead.
I noted the position of the bullet-mark, rather high up just behind
the shoulder, and thought it must have smashed the vertebral column
and so caused instant death. I then dismounted beneath a neighbouring
tree, and, placing my rifle against the stem, walked towards the dead
animal--as I thought. I was within a few yards of its head, when
suddenly, with scarcely a preliminary kick, it rose to its feet and
stood facing me. I was so near it that I thought it would be sure to
charge, as almost any roan or sable antelope bull would have done so
in similar circumstances. But, much to my relief, after eyeing me
steadily for a few seconds, it turned and galloped off, and might
easily have got away altogether, had my horse not been a good one. When
I eventually killed it, I found that my first bullet had only grazed
the vertebral column, and momentarily paralysed the poor animal. But
it had a splendid chance for vengeance, of which it altogether failed
to take advantage, and I certainly would not care to afford another of
its kind a similar opportunity.
I have not heard whether or not the plague of rinderpest which
swept through South Africa in 1896, and worked such terrible havoc
amongst both the cattle and game of that vast territory, affected
the gemsbucks. But, isolated as they are in the arid wastes of the
Kalahari, I should imagine not; and since they are protected from
constant persecution by the inhospitable nature of their surroundings,
I fancy that they will long outlive many other species of South African
game, which but a few years ago were far more numerous. May this be so;
for, though the gemsbuck will always be hard to find, and by no means
easy to bring to bag when found, these difficulties enhance his value,
whilst his head will ever be one of the most beautiful and coveted
trophies to be won in the hunting-fields of Africa.