THE EXTINCT QUAGGA 257 



the flesh of the quagga was almost uneatable by Europeans, 

 although it was keenly relished by the Hottentots, who, 

 in the early days of the Cape Colony, were largely fed 

 upon it by their Dutch masters. Whether this was the 

 cause of its comparatively early disappearance from that 

 part of the country, it is now impossible to say, but 

 certain it is that when Sir Cornwallis Harris made his 

 trip to the interior in 1836, quaggas were no longer to 

 be met with in any numbers in Cape Colony, although 

 Colonel Hamilton Smith, writing a few years later, states 

 that they were still to be found within its limits. North 

 of the Vaal River they occurred, however, in their original 

 multitudes, and it was not till about the middle of the 

 last century that the Boers took to hide-hunting, and 

 thus in a few years accomplished the extermination of the 

 species. 



Allusion has already been made to the facility with 

 which the quagga could be broken to harness, and it 

 seems probable that the species could have been more 

 easily domesticated than any of its South African relatives. 

 Another trait in its disposition is worth brief mention. It 

 was said to be the boldest and fiercest of the whole equine 

 tribe, attacking and driving off both the wild dog and the 

 spotted hyaena. On this account the Boers are stated 

 to have frequently kept a few tame quaggas on their 

 farms, which were turned out at night to graze with the 

 horses in order to protect them from the attacks of beasts 

 of prey. 



Throughout the whole of the plain country to the south 

 of the Vaal River the quagga was the sole wild representa- 

 tive of the horse family, the true zebra being confined to 

 the mountains of Cape Colony and adjacent districts. 

 North of the Vaal River the veldt was, however, dotted 



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