Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/244

218 Pan, the farm of Mr. Jackson, who made us most welcome. Chatting about the Bucks, Mr. Jackson said we had not seen the densest part of the trek, and told us of two incidents which indicated how thick the crowd had been on a portion of his farm. His son on one occasion got ahead of the Bucks, in a narrow run between some kopjes, down which he knew they were coming. They did come, and he only escaped being trampled to death by taking shelter behind a large stone, past which they rushed like a torrent. He actually shot one within a yard or two of the stone before taking refuge behind it. The other incident—it occurred on two occasions—was more remarkable. When Springbuck are shot at they all usually begin to run in one direction, up the wind as a rule; and, if they are in large numbers and hard pressed, they pass in two streams on each side of the object they wish to avoid. (When they once take their direction they will keep it. Hunters know this well. Shooting near Colesberg, in 1880, we used to start the Bucks running, and then ride to head them off. I have thus ridden right through a flying herd of only a few hundreds.) When the object is very close they pass in front of it in a kind of crescent form, giving a little in the centre, and thus closing back towards the original line of their flight. As the Karoo veld is very bare and sandy, they often raise, and run enveloped in, a cloud of dust. Mr. Jackson was out in his four-in-hand Cape-cart shooting Trek-bokke. As he drove along the dense masses began to cut across in front of him enveloped in a cloud of dust, which, as the numbers thickened and the pace increased, grew denser, and as it grew denser and obscured their sight the rushing mass came closer and closer to the cart, until at last, in a thick storm of blinding dust, some of the Bucks actually ran against the cart-wheels and under the horses' bellies. A man on foot would probably have been knocked down and trampled to death.

No careful study has, to my knowledge, been made of the habits of the Trek-bokke. It is known that they migrate in search of better veld, urged thereto by drought. They do not travel fast when doing this, but feed along. In some out-of-the-way parts they kid, and when the kids are strong enough they return to their own veld, if rain has fallen. If it continues dry they do not return at once, but stay on till later in the season, or perhaps over another kidding. How they know when it has rained where they came from, when perhaps it is dry where they are, one cannot say; but it is generally held that, through a subtle sense of smell, they do know. Whether the Trek-bokke of forty or fifty years ago or earlier came from some particular part of the country and again returned to it, I do not know, but I do not think this was the case; it seems more likely that when the Bucks were in such countless numbers all over the country they simply all moved off together during droughts in search of food. Trek-bokke then might have come from any part of the country suffering severely from