CAPE HUNTING DOG OR WILDE HONDE 



but they soon learn how to cope with and overcome, 

 or at least considerably minimise the effects of the 

 new source of danger to their kind. For this reason 

 there is much disagreement amongst naturalists 

 and others as to the ways and habits of the lower 

 animals, because in one part of the country they in 

 many respects differ considerably in their habits, 

 owing to local circumstances. Game animals, for 

 instance, which in the past were invariably found 

 out upon the open veld, now haunt the dense 

 forests and bush-veld, owing to being hunted and 

 shot. 



The powers of endurance of the Cape Hunting 

 Dog are astonishing. The swiftest of antelopes are 

 run down by them. Keeping together in a compact 

 mass, they gallop steadily along and never seem to 

 tire, and although the pursued animal may be fleeter 

 than they, yet possessing greater endurance they 

 invariably succeed in tiring it out. 



The average man imagines that, unless he is 

 fortified with nourishing food every few hours, his 

 strength will wane and he will be incapable of either 

 mental or physical labour. The wild dog will scour 

 the country for days, doing perchance over a hun- 

 dred miles a day in quest of food, on a perfectly 

 empty stomach. The food of these dogs, as a 

 general rule, is well earned. To procure a suffi- 

 ciency, great physical exertion is put forth, combined 

 with considerable exercise of mental power. This 

 strenuous life is necessary for the maintenance of 



• 127 



