Part 15

We will now turn to some of the chief authorities on the Natural History of the Cape, and see what we can learn from them as to the habits and exact distribution of the present animal, of which the systematists tell us very little. Sparrman, who was in South Africa in 1772 and the following years, after commenting on the unsuitable appellation applied to it, says that the Gemsbok is in all probability peculiar to the north-western part of the Colony, for that in the country which he traversed, which was mainly east from Cape Town, he neither saw nor heard anything of it. But its remarkable horns were not at that period scarce in collections at Cape Town. Patterson, about 1790, met with the Gemsbok in Clanwilliam; and Barrow, about ten years later, seems to have come across it in Willowmore. Lichtenstein, in the second volume of his travels (1812), notes the occurrence of the Gemsbok in the Hopetown District, and writes of it as Antilope oryx. Steedman, whose ‘Wanderings in South Africa’ were published in 1835, devotes considerable attention to this animal and gives a good figure of it (vol. ii. p. 55) from specimens obtained on the farm of Stoffel Jacobs, near Bushman’s Poorte, just south of the Orange River.

We now come to the epoch of the celebrated traveller Sir William Cornwallis Harris, who penetrated far into the interior of South Africa in 1836 and 1837. On plate ix. of his ‘Portraits’ Harris gives excellent figures accompanied by full descriptions of both sexes of the Gemsbok, which he met with on the Moloppo and Modder Rivers in Bechuanaland, and in the adjoining districts of the Orange Free State. We extract the following passages from Harris’s lively chapter on this Antelope:—

“The South-African Oryx is a most wild and warlike-looking animal, not less remarkable for beauty, speed, and vigour, than famed for the excellence of its venison, which is everywhere held in the highest estimation. Although usually found in pairs on the Karroos and unfrequented stony districts, which form its invariable habitation, the males sometimes possess two females, constituting, with their young, a family of five or six individuals. The calves, which are born of a reddish cream colour, become whiter as they increase in bulk, and are easily domesticated; but their uncertain temper renders it difficult at any time to pronounce them tame. Their horns, at first blunt and round at the tips, are soon ground to a fine needle-like point, by dint of raking and whetting them against rough-stemmed trees,—thus becoming most formidable weapons, whether of offence or defence. The horns of the females are much longer and more bodkinish in appearance than those of the males, who never meet during the rutting season without desperate battles, their courage and quarrelsome disposition frequently rendering their duels fatal, one of the combatants often being run slap through the body by a lunge from the long rapier-resembling weapons of his antagonist. The natives of Southern Africa occasionally arm their spears with the horns of the Oryx; and the Hollanders of the Cape have them polished and headed with silver, to serve as walking-sticks, for which purpose they are frequently too long! Strong, active, and vigorous, the Gemsbok boldly defends itself when pressed by the hunter, using its horns with amazing energy and address, by striking right and left at its assailant with prodigious violence. Oppian, the modern Arabs of the desert, and the Hottentots, are all agreed in describing the danger of approaching these animals before they are totally disabled.”

A few years later another well-known sportsman, Roualeyn Gordon Cumming, arrived in South Africa and commenced the five years of his ‘Hunter’s Life,’ of which he has given to the world such a vivid description. Cumming first met with the Gemsbok in December 1843 in the “vast Karroo plains” west of Colesberg, where it was abundant at that epoch. He describes some of its chief peculiarities as follows:—

“The Gemsbok was destined by nature to adorn the parched karroos and arid deserts of South Africa, for which description of country it is admirably adapted. It thrives and attains high condition in barren regions, where it might be imagined that a locust would not find subsistence, and, burning as is its climate, it is perfectly independent of water, which, from my own observation and the repeated reports both of the Boers and aborigines, I am convinced it never by any chance tastes. Its flesh is deservedly esteemed, and ranks next to the Eland. At certain seasons of the year they carry a great quantity of fat, at which time they can be more easily ridden into. Owing to the even nature of the ground which the Oryx frequents, its shy and suspicious disposition, and the extreme distances from water to which it must be followed, it is never stalked or driven to an ambush like other Antelopes, but is hunted on horseback, and ridden down by a long, severe, tail-on- end chase. Of several animals in South Africa which are hunted in this manner, and may be ridden into by a horse, the Oryx is by far the swiftest and most enduring.”

In his ‘Hunter’s Wanderings’ Mr. Selous gives us an excellent account of the range of the Gemsbok about twenty years ago. He says (p. 212):—

“The Gemsbuck is almost entirely confined to the arid deserts of South-western Africa. In the Kalahari desert, to the west of Griqualand West, it is fairly plentiful, and on the road leading along the eastern border of the desert from Kuruman to Bamangwato it is occasionally to be met with, becoming plentiful if one penetrates into the waterless country to the westward, but being unknown to the eastward, of the road. Along the waggon-road leading from Bamangwato to Tati there are a few Gemsbuck above Pelatsi, Serule, and Goqui, and they are sometimes to be met with on the upper course of the Macloutsi, Shashi, and Tati rivers. A few sometimes even wander as far eastwards as the Ramokwebani river. On the road leading from Tati to the Zambesi Gemsbuck are not often met with, but a few are occasionally to be seen in the neighbourhood of Thammasanka and Thammasetsi. A little farther westwards, however, in the neighbourhood of the great saltpans, they are numerous, as they are also in all the country between the saltpans and the Botletlie river, whilst to the west of that river, right through the desert into Damaraland, they are said to run in large herds. Where I have met with them, the country has either been open or covered with stunted bush, and along the waggon-road from Bamangwato to the Mābābe their northern range seems to be limited by the heavily-timbered sand-belts, which run east and west immediately to the south of that river, and into which the Gemsbuck does not penetrate. North of the Mābābe, in the direction of the Chobe, although many parts of the country appear well fitted for it, the Gemsbuck is unknown.

“So far as my experience goes, the Gemsbuck is far from being the fleetest or most enduring Antelope in South Africa, and in these respects cannot be compared to the Tsessebe or Hartebeest. I do not think it is either fleeter or more enduring than the Sable or Roan Antelope; and I have myself run one to a standstill without firing a shot, and I know of several other men having done the same thing. The horns of the cow become longer than those of the bull, as a rule; the longest pair of the former I have ever seen measured 3 feet 10½ inches, and of the latter 3 feet 6 inches,”

Mr. H. A. Bryden, writing in 1889, describes the Gemsbok as then “very nearly extinct in the Cape Colony.” Seven or eight years previously two of the last had been shot in the north of Calvinia, near the banks of the Orange River.

Mr. W. L. Sclater, Director of the South African Museum, Cape Town, writing of the present distribution of the Gemsbok in South Africa, informs us that, according to the statistics of the Agricultural Department, there are about 5000 Gemsboks still existing in Bechuanaland between Namaqualand and Kenhart. There are also said to be plenty of these Antelopes still to be found throughout the German South-west African territory and the western part of the Kalahari Desert. North of German South-west Africa, we know from Capello and Ivens, and other Portuguese authorities, that the Gemsbok is also found in Mossamedes and in the adjoining arid districts of Southern Angola.

The Gemsbok is very rarely seen in captivity, and we are not aware that living examples of it have ever been brought to Europe. Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, of Hamburg, who has had great experience in such matters, informs us that he has never seen this animal alive.

There is a fine mounted pair of the Gemsbok in the Gallery of the British Museum, obtained by Mr. F. C. Selous in the Bamangwato District of Bechuanaland, and a frontlet and horns procured by the same enterprising hunter on the Botletli River. Besides these there are several older stuffed specimens, as also some heads and skins, of which the exact localities are unknown.

Our figure of the Gemsbok (Plate LXXXIII.) was drawn on the stone by Mr. Smit from Mr. Wolf’s sketch, but it is, unfortunately, impossible to ascertain from what specimen it was taken.

May, 1899.

116. THE BEISA.

ORYX BEISA (Rüpp.).

Leucoryx Antelope, =Penn.= Quadr. i. pl. xii. (1793) (not description) (?).

“Antilope dammah der Araber,” =Cretzschm.= Atl. Rüpp. Reise, p. 22 (footnote) (1826) (?), whence

Antilope dammah, =Rüpp.= Fisch. Syn. Mamm. p. 475 (1829).

Antilope beisa, =Rüpp.= N. Wirb. Abyss. p. 14, pl. v. (1835); =Oken=, Allg. Naturg. vii. p. 1392 (1838); =Laurill.= Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 617 (1841); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 477 (1844), v. p. 436 (1855); =Reichenb.= Säug. iii. p. 123, pi. xxxviii. (1845); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 436 (1845); =id.= Mon. Antil. p. 33, pi. xxxvii. (1848); =Huet=, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 71 (1887).

Oryx beisa, =Sund.= Pecora K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1844, p. 207 (1846); =id.= Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 157; Reprint, p. 81 (1848); =Gray=, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 134; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 17 (1850); =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 106 (1852); =Heugl.= Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. (N. Act. Leop. xxx. pt. 2) p. 17 (1863); =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 178 (1869); =Blanf.= Zool. Abyss. p. 262 (1870); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 35 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 104 (1873); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1872, p. 604, 1874, p. 323, 1875, p. 633; =Heugl.= N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 111 (1877); =Brehm=, Thierl. iii. p. 231 (1880); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1881, p. 626, pl. liv. (adult and young); =id.= List Anim. Z. S. (8) p. 139, fig. 19 (1883), (9) p. 159 (1896); =Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Coll. Surg. ii. p. 262 (1884); =Lort Phillips=, P. Z. S. 1885, p. 931; =W. Scl.= Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 155 (1891); =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 343 (1891); =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1891, p. 207; =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1892, p. 102; =Swayne=, P. Z. S. 1892, p. 300; =Ward=, Horn Meas. (1) p. 146 (1892), (2) p. 186 (1896); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 247 (1893); =Matsch.= SB. nat. Fr. Berl. 1893, p. 103; =Swayne=, Seventeen Trips to Somaliland, p. 298 (1895); =Rhoads=, P. Ac. Philad. 1896, p. 519; =Pousargues=, Ann. Sci. Nat. (7) iv. p. 131 (1896); =Elliot=, Publ. Chicago Mus. Zool. i. p. 130 (1897); =Neumann=, Elephant-Hunting, p. 363 (1898) (Lake Rudolf); =Trouessart=, Cat. Mamm. fasc. iv. p. 954 (1898).

Oryx biessa, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 232 (1846).

Vernacular Names:—Beisa of Arabs at Massowa (Rüppell); Beida (Heuglin); Baet of Somalis (Swayne); Ari of Danakils (Heuglin).

Height at withers about 46 inches. Colour of neck and body a tolerably uniform tawny. Head and throat with the same ornamentation of black stripes and patches as in the preceding species, but the nose-patch does not spread so far laterally, and does not fuse with the lower extremity of the stripe that runs from the eye; this stripe also stops short at a point about on a level with the corner of the mouth, and is not produced inferiorly on to the lower side of the jaw; thus the whitish muzzle is not surrounded by a complete black ring as is the case in O. gazella, and there is less black on the inter-ramal area and on the upper end of the throat. Hair of throat not produced to form a mane or beard. Ears black at tip and on rim as in O. gazella. Black spinal stripe more sharply defined than in that species and extending from a point near the middle of the rump; hind-quarters of the same colour as the body and neck, there being no black patch on the rump and none on the lower half of the thighs. The black stripe that passes backwards from the chest along the side of the body above the white belly is narrower than in O. gazella, and is not continued on to the thighs. Hind legs whitish, not black above the hocks, and without a black spot on front of the cannon-bone, but stained with black above the false hoofs and below the hocks. Fore legs whitish, banded as in O. gazella, but the stripe above the knee narrower and only extending about halfway up to the shoulder on the outer side, and to the chest on the inner. Tail-tuft black. Hairs along the neck and spine lying forwards, the parting situated on the rump.

Horns nearly straight, ribbed in their basal half; about 36 or 37 inches in length, often only about 30.

A skull gives the following measurements:—Basal length 14 inches, orbit to nose 12·75, greatest width 5·75.

Female. Similar to the male, but horns rather longer and thinner.

Hab. Western shores of the Red Sea from Suakin southwards to Danakilland; Somaliland and British East Africa north of the Tana.