To the north of the latter town is Pilansberg, where one of the upper branches of the Limpopo rises, forming the Elands river.
We had seen numbers of elands sporting round us in every direction, but as soon as we approached them, off they bounded.
By creeping along under the shelter of some low bushes as we neared them, the elands did not see us.
As we advanced we saw numbers of large game, and one evening nearly a hundred buffaloes defiled before us in slow procession, almost within gun-shot, while herds of elands passed us without showing any signs of fear.
They had encamped upon a wide plain covered with high grass, and abounding with elands and other varieties of antelopes: here they remained for five days, waiting the reply of the king of the Matabili, and went out every day to procure game.
But as the Griquas were now equally convinced that treachery was intended, they paid no attention to the Matabili chief, and continued their route, shooting elands by the way for their sustenance.
He informed me that buffaloes and elands were not farther off than we could walk while it took the sun to go from "there to there,"--pointing to two clouds in the sky.
After about half an hour, my heavy friend showed on the hill-top, and came galloping down and shouting to know where the elands had gone, with as much eagerness as though he had been but half a mile instead of half an hour behind.
At the cold season of the year the Dutchmen are in the habit of making excursions into the uninhabited plains in search of the large herds of elands and hartebeest that are there found.
They inquired if we had no elands in that land, and seemed to think it a very poor place where no large game was to be found.
There was no remedy but to ride to the waggons for my second gun: they were not very far distant, and nearly on the line that the elands had just taken.
Some of the party managed this business, while I and two of the Boers waited under the hill until the elands should come past us.
I started quite early in the morning with Inkau, to a spot which he told me elands frequented.
The elands are well-known in England, several fine specimens being in the Regent's Park Zoological Gardens.
After gazing at me for a few seconds the elands galloped on, changing their course slightly to the right.
Looking round I saw nine elands descending the side of the depression and making straight for me.
That won't be difficult, will it, as the elands crashed through the same way?
Once I went out in one direction and Murray in another to shoot elands for fat to make candles--we carried wicks and tin moulds amongst our stores.
They had evidently seen the elands from the other side of the plain, and had attempted to cut them off by stalking across the wind as I was doing.
Elands are decidedly difficult to stalk, both on account of the watchfulness of the cows and the nature of the ground they generally frequent.
The bull stood up, and as he stared in the direction from which the shot had come I heard another report; but, as great good luck would have it, instead of bolting all four elands began to walk quietly towards where I lay.
On each of the first three days I almost succeeded in getting within range, when the elands were alarmed by a shot fired in the distance and moved off, afterwards standing in such an exposed position that a stalk was quite impossible.
Had the elands continued their course up wind and not stopped where they did they would have passed pretty close to where the lions lay in a thick patch of grass.
On seeing that the elands had stopped, the lions had crept diagonally across and down the wind, until the elands detected them.
The lions then stood up, and after watching the elands a short time lay down in the grass; but before I could crawl up to them and get a shot, they went off for the bush on the other side of the plain.
When the lions came to a tuft of rather longer grass they both raised their heads for a second, but the elands apparently took no notice of them, as they still stood perfectly motionless.
As I had not the remotest idea where the elands were, on account of the dust, I whispered to Ramazan to keep a sharp look-out on the right, whilst I kept watch on the left, the side towards the watercourse.
This they did at a walk, as my men were fairly good at driving, and had stopped directly they saw the elands were close to my position.
In the open bush country west of Mount Kisigao elands are fairly numerous.
The line runs through the Komati Poort, and then up the Elands River Valley, a beautiful valley indeed, but a veritable valley of death to the builders of the railway.
On the eastern line, the Central South African line connects with the Portuguese line at Komati Poort, and passes up the Elands River Valley already described.
Where Cagn is Qing did not know, "but the elands know.
Have you not hunted and heard his cry when the elands suddenly run to his call?
The remainder of the myth accounts for the origin of elands and for their inconvenient wildness.
We encamped at sundown close to Elands Post, where we were joined by a company of the 74th Highlanders quartered there, their place being taken by a company of the Rifle Brigade that had accompanied us thus far for the purpose.
The Harrismith section had been pushed as far as Tweefontein, which is nine miles west of Elands River Bridge, and here a small force was stationed to cover the workers.
Two British columns had left Zeerust on October 17th, under Methuen and Von Donop, in order to sweep the surrounding country, the one working in the direction of Elands River and the other in that of Rustenburg.
They proved once more, as Ladybrand and Elands River had shown, that with provisions, cartridges, and brains, the smallest force can successfully hold its own if it confines itself to the defensive.
But now they can point to Elands River as proudly as the Canadians can to Paardeberg.
At dawn on September 22nd a half-hearted attempt was made by the commando of Erasmus to attack Elands River Station, but it was beaten back by the garrison.
When the ballad-makers of Australia seek for a subject, let them turn to Elands River, for there was no finer resistance in the war.
One of the outlets, Elands River Poort, was guarded by a single squadron of the 17th Lancers.
This stand at Brakfontein on the Elands River appears to have been one of the very finest deeds of arms of the war.
The mounted men followed as far as Elands River Station, which is twenty-five miles from Pretoria, but the enemy was not overtaken, save by a small party of De Lisle's Australians and Regular Mounted Infantry.
A smaller siege had been going on to westward, where atElands River another Mafeking man, Colonel Hore, had been held up by the burghers.
After shooting five elands to furnish meat at his main camp during his absence, Selous crossed the Zambesi, towing his horses behind a canoe.
And so it continued till 1896, when the rinderpest swept off nine-tenths of the koodoos, elands and buffalo.
We need not follow Selous' wanderings in the parched uninteresting forest country about Tembera, where for nine weeks, in company with a native chief named Yei, he hunted the small herd of Giant Elands somewhat unsuccessfully.
I shall probably be more sure of finding the Elands to the south of Wau, in the Bahr-el-Ghazal Province, but the journey there would be much more expensive, and my means are very limited.
I have, however, first to find the Elands and then shoot and preserve them, and to do the latter all by myself, with only raw savages to help me will be a hard job in the climate of the Lado, where I am going to look for my game.
At eight o'clock an English reinforcement came from Elands River bridge; but by that time our people had already gone off with the booty.
This time they had an extract from a proclamation by Lord Kitchener, which they left behind in their camps, on the buttresses of the bridge over Elands River, and elsewhere.
There was no clump large enough to have sheltered a hunter from the eye of his game; and Hendrik at once came to the conclusion, that the elands could not be "stalked" in the situation they then occupied.
The only growth near the spot where the elands were, consisted of straggling aloe plants, euphorbias, with some stunted bushes, and tufts of dry grass, characteristic of the desert.
It was, therefore, with great delight, that Hendrik one morning received the report that a herd of elands had been seen upon the upper plain, and not far off.
Now since their arrival, no elands had been seen, though now and then their spoor was observed; and Hendrik, for several reasons, was very desirous of getting one.
The result might be different should the elands take the alarm at a long distance off, and scour away over the plain.
Soon the elands appeared; they ran for a short distance down the kloof, then halted just opposite where I was standing.
Two of the elands had fallen close together, within a few paces of a stream of water, and the others lay at different spots, none of which were more than a hundred paces away.
We seventeen collected together where the two elands lay, and in a few minutes found ourselves surrounded by those who had driven the game for us.
Then we rushed in, and before the sun sank five of the elands lay dead.
One day in autumn, after the plough rains had fallen, I, with seventeen of my friends, went to hunt a troop of elands which were reported to have newly come to the top of the Katberg.
Eighty-one buffaloes defiled in slow procession before our fire one evening, within gunshot; and herds of splendid elands stood by day, without fear, at two hundred yards distance.
They are generally of a white color, and are quite wild, running off with graceful ease like a herd of elands on the approach of a stranger.
It will be a long time before the elands are driven away from the plains here, and there are buck in plenty.
Colonel Firman's brigade was camped between Bethlehem and Harrismith, at Elands River bridge, where he was building the line of blockhouses between the two towns.
At last, when hundreds upon hundreds of the various antelopes had passed, the elands were still browsing about, nearly half a mile away, and seemed not likely to come any nearer.
Dyke nodded smartly, and waited impatiently for a full quarter of an hour, during which they had chance after chance at small fry; but the elands still held aloof.
For several weeks Colonel Hore, with a small garrison at Brakfontein on the Elands River, had been keeping up the connection between Mafeking and Zeerust, policing the district and forwarding on convoys to Rustenburg.
Thus, as at Wepener, it became a game of patience for the garrison, dissimilar only in this, that at Elands River there was no promise of support to buoy up the garrison with hope.
On August 5 firing had been heard in the direction of Elands River, so next day Baden-Powell marched with his own and Mahon's mounted troops about half-way to Brakfontein.
On the 8th Lord Roberts visited the camp of the Australians and Rhodesians at Daspoort, and thanked the men for their devotion and bravery, especially for their fine defence of Elands River.
Meanwhile the small garrison at Brakfontein (Elands River), to whose aid two forces had been moving, were fighting like demons, and making one of the most magnificent stands of the war.
The fact was that at dawn on the morning of the 4th, the garrison at Elands River--they arrived there on the day before to guard the line between Zeerust and Rustenburg--was attacked by the Boers.
When Erasmus and his commando knocked with big guns at the door of Elands River Station, "Not at home," was so definitely expressed that the visitor was forced to turn on his haunches.
At dawn, a commando under Erasmus, with a 15-pounder and two pom-poms, attacked Elands River Station.
The enemy's sole success, after surprising activity, was the cutting of the line between Elands River and Skie Poort.
General Carrington had barely realised the impossibility of proceeding, when the report came in that Elands River garrison had surrendered.
It must be noted that Elands River runs both east and west of Pretoria.
His troops had reached Zeerust on the 1st, the Boers who were there decamping before them in the direction of Elands River.
He then heard the sound of firing in the direction of Elands River, and soon it became known that the small force mounting guard there was also in trouble.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "elands" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
