THE MIGRATIONS OF THE SPRINGBOK.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1695, 7 June 1884, Page 2

THE MIGRATIONS OF THE SPRINGBOK.

Many travellers in South Africa have mentioned the 'trek bokken,' as the Boers call the pilgrimages of the springbok, but none have painted them more vividly than the late Captain Gordon Cumming. One morning as he had been lying awake in his waggon for some two hours before daybreak he had heard the continual grunting of male springboks, but took no particular notice of the sound. "On rising, when it was clear, and looking about me, 1 beheld the ground to the northward of mycamp actually covered with a dense living mass of springboks, marching steadily and slowly alongextending from an opening in a long range of hills on the west, through which they continued pouring like the flood of some great river, to a ridge about half a mile to the east, over which they disappeared. The breadth of the ground which they covered might have, been somewhere about half a mile. I stood upon the fore.chest of my waggon for nearly two hours, lost in wonder at the novel and beautiful scene which was passing before me and had some difficulty in convincing myself that it was a reality which I beheld and not the wild exaggerated picture of a hunter's dream. During this time their vast legions continued streaming through the neck in the hills, in one unbroken, compact phalanx." It has sometimes happened that a flock of sheep has strayed into the line of march. In such cases the flock has been overlapped, enveloped in the springbok army, and forced to join in the march. A most astonishing example of the united power of the springbok was witnessed by a wellknown hunter. During the passage of one of these armies a lion was seen in the midst of the antelopes forced to take unwilling part in the march. He had evidently miscalculated his leap and sprung too far alighting upon the main body. Those xipon whom he alighted must have recoiled sufficiently to allow him to reach the ground, and then the pressure from both flanks and the rear prevented him from escaping from his strange captivity. As only the front ranks of these armies could put their heads to the ground we very naturally wonder how those in the middle and rear feed. The mode which is adopted is equally simple and efficacious. When the herd ai'rives at their pasturage, those animals which occupy the front feed greedily until they can eat no more. Then being, ruminants they need rest to enable them to chew the cud. So they fall out of the rank and quietly chew the cud until the column has almost passed them, when they fall in at the rear and gradually work their way to the front again. As to water, they do not require it, many of those South African antelopes possessing the singular property of being able to exist for months together without drinking.— (Sunday Magazine).

A Model Girl. — "A girl named Alice Akernier, iigcd fourteen the daughter of a laborer, has just completed her education at Langloy School, Bucks. She has never missed being present since the school was opened ou the 4th of October, 1875, and, in completing her 3,451 attendances, is said to have walked 6000 miles. She has passevl every standard successfully, and in three subjects in first grade drawing obtained •Excellent,' prizes in freehand and model, as also in the three stages of the specific subjects — literature, domestic economy, and animal physiology — and in one stage in physical geography. She has also obtained twentysix other prizes, for good attendance sculpture, sewing,knitting, etc, .