ANIMALS OF THE POTCHEFSTROOM DISTRICT 209 



Notes on Animals of the Potchefstrooni District, 

 By A:\iBROSE A. Lane. 



What wealth of wild life in the way of animals may 

 have existed in this locality a hundred or even fifty 

 years ago, must at present remain more or less a matter 

 of conjecture, so many species having disappeared, or 

 having been driven to more remote regions during the 

 last half century. Whether the elephant, the rhino, 

 the giraffe, and such like were ever numerous in parts 

 where bush and trees were formerly more plentiful than 

 is the case at present, it is not easy to decide; but that 

 eland, quagga, and other large game formerly abounded 

 is still well known, and the nomenclature of many farms 

 in the vicinity gives evidence of favoured grazing grounds 

 all over the district. Old residents in Potchefstrooni have 

 asseverated that they have stood in the main street of the 

 dorp, watching the hunters in pursuit of lion along the 

 reed beds below where the "S^ijfhoek Settlement now ex- 

 tends. 



The largest wild buck I have seen were a few odd bles 

 bok, which still survive on farms where they are more or 

 less protected. T saw one a little over a year ago, just 

 beyond the Mooibank Settlement. It had probably come 

 across the river from Mr. van der Merwe's farm, on which 

 and I trust some others, tliey are still preserved. 

 - Springbok are still plentiful on outside farms where 

 they are looked after, but otherwise nothing but an 

 occasional duiker and a few steenbok remain of the 

 enormous numbers of the antelope tribe which formerly 

 existed, and even these are threatened with extermination- 

 Some years before the war the officers of the garrison 

 at Potchefstrooni maintained a very sporting pack of 



