Natal
The flesh of the duiker affords moderately good eating.
H. A. BRYDEN.
EEL. (Anguilla vulgaris.) MEASUREMENTS, &c. -Lower jaw the longer; length of head 2/2 to 234 in the distance from the snout to the origin of the dorsal fin, and from 3 to 33 to the commencement of the anal fin. Body cylindrical as far as the anus, posterior to which it becomes more and more compressed.
Lips broad and fleshy (latirostris), narrow (vulgaris); the maxilla extends backwards to beneath the middle or hind edge of the eye. Eye-rather small, diameter 8 to 12 times in the length of the head; about 1/2 to 2 from the end of the or snout 1/2 apart. Teeth-cardiform in the jaws and vomer. Fins-the dorsal commences far behind the head, as already observed. The anal arises about the length of the head behind the origin of the dorsal fin, and a little in front of the middle of the [Photo. by W. B. and S. C. Johnson.
EEL. total length. Scales-small ones under the epidermis and imbedded in mucus. Colours -variable, generally dull olive along the back, and white or yellow along the abdomen, fins darker than the body, except the first third of the anal. Among the outward signs by which a male eel may be recognised, says O. Hermes, is a very striking metallic or bronze colour. - Day's Fishes of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. II., p. 242.
ELAND. The Eland (Taurotragus oryx), Pofu of the Bechuanas, Mpofu of the Matabele and Zulus, as well as of the Swahilis of East Africa, is the largest antelope in the world, and is found only in Africa. Of the common Eland there are two varieties the unstriped Eland, whose range seems never to have extended much north of Lake Ngami, and the striped Eland, discovered by Livingstone, which, towards the Zambesi and thence northward, westward, and eastward into the African continent, takes the place of the more southern, desert-loving, and unstriped Eland. The unstriped Eland attains greater dimensions than its striped congener, although it frequents by preference much more waterless and desert country. Further north in Africa is found the magnificent Derbian Eland (Taurotragus derbianus), distinguished from the other species by the greater length and stoutness of the horns, and a somewhat different coloration. This Eland was first discovered in the Gambia country, but its range has now been found [EEL to extend as far eastward as the Egyptian Soudan.
At the present time, bull Elands may still be found in the northern portion of the Kalahari standing nearly 6 feet at the shoulder and weighing 1,500 lbs. or more.
Instances are on record of these magnificent creatures measuring no less than 6 feet 6 inches (19½ hands) at the withers, and weighing 2,000 lbs. But, thanks to incessant persecution, Elands of the present day can seldom hope to attain such weight and measurement. The cows are considerably less in weight and height than the bulls.
The colour of a herd of Elands varies greatly. The younger animals are of a rufous fawn; in the intermediate stages the colour is of a paler fawn or dun; while in the old bulls and cows the hair becomes much, thinner with age, the skin shows through, and the body colouring is of a slaty blue. The coat is as smooth as that of an Alderney cow. The head, especially in the bulls, is small, neat, and game-like.
The bulls are easily singled out by their much greater size and bulk, their shorter and more massive horns, and the thick bristly tuft of bright brown hair which stands out from the forehead just beneath the horns. The body is exceedingly mas- [Photo. by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.
ELAND. sive, the shoulders are very deep, and a broad dewlap depends towards the knees.
The legs are clean and shapely. In the Derbian Eland the body colouring is more rufous, the forehead is chestnut coloured, and an imperfect white chevron is found below the eyes.
ELAND] Although so frequently found in purely desert country, the Eland puts on flesh and fat in a quite amazing way. Even in the dry season of the South African winter the writer has hunted and killed these antelopes in the waterless recesses of the North Kalahari, and found them fat and in high condition. The flesh is excellent; tender, juicy, and partaking of the flavour of young, game-like beef-if such a combination can be imagined. The horns of an average well-grown bull attain occasionally a length BULL ELAND.
N of 31 or 32 inches, and are extremely massive at the base. The horns of a cow the will sometimes reach a length of about 34 inches; but they are slimmer and less deeply marked in the twist than those of the male.
The record horns of the common Eland measure 37 inches, of the Derbian species 393/8 inches. A single horn in the Berlin Museum measures 40 inches.
In the old days Elands must have been extraordinarily plentiful in every part of South Africa, down even to the shores of the Cape Peninsula. Their name yet lingers throughout the country, and Eland's Drift, Eland's Kopje, Eland's River, and Eland's Fontein are amongst the commonest of South African place-names. But even in the days of the flint-lock the Eland was always one of the easiest of all game animals to shoot. Its flesh and skin were always in high demand; it was everywhere VOL. II eagerly pursued; and at the present day, except in the difficult recesses of the Kalahari Desert, the old unstriped Eland of the Cape, once known to naturalists as Oreas canna, may now be looked upon as a vanished quadruped. quadr In the Cape Colony, Great Namaqualand, Zululand, the Transvaal, the Orange Free State and Bechuanaland as far as the tropic of Capricorn it is extinct. Yet Cornwallis Harris in 1837 describes this noble beast as frequenting the plains of the interior, i.e., middle Bechuanaland, the Transvaal and Orange Free State, "in vast herds." A few are still preserved by the Natal Government in a corner of the Drakensberg Mountains between Natal and Basutoland. In the Kalahari, or desert portions of the Bakwéna and Bamangwato countries-the territory of the chiefs Sebele and Khama-the Eland is now first encountered as the traveller passes north. In all this northern region of the Kalahari, and westward towards Lake Ngami, the unstriped Eland still roams in large herds. The writer has encountered them in recent years between Kanne and Inkouani in troops of between thirty and forty, and still larger herds exist. It is a fact that these desertbred Elands can and do exist without water for seven months in the year, in common with the gemsbok, giraffe, duiker, and steinbok. In the Ovampo country, west of Lake