166 NATURE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA 



a rule, its constitution is hardy enough, it will some- 

 times succumb to the snowstorms which occasionally 

 occur upon the mountain heights. Quite recently, 

 after a heavy fall and severe cold on the mountains, 

 near Cradock, in Cape Colony, several zebras were 

 found dead. The altitudes of the mountains of South 

 Africa in which this zebra is still found range from 

 2000 to 7000 feet. 



In the old days the young of this zebra were 

 occasionally captured and exported to Mauritius, 

 where they were driven in fashionable equipages. 

 But as a rule this species is far more intractable than 

 its relative, the Burchell's zebra. In the adult 

 animals ferocity is strongly marked, and taming is 

 out of the question. Pringle mentions a young Boer 

 who had driven a zebra to the edge of a precipice, 

 with the intention of forcing it over and securing the 

 skin. The beast turned upon the hunter, seized his 

 foot in its teeth, and severed it from the leg, inflicting 

 so dreadful a wound that the unfortunate young man 

 died a few days later. Barrow instances the case of 

 a soldier who was thrown by a half-tamed zebra, 

 which then bit the unfortunate man's ear clean off, 

 as he lay stunned upon the ground. A stallion, the 

 last survivor of the troop seen by myself in Witte- 

 berg, was afterwards kraaled and captured by my 

 friends, and fastened by ropes to a tree. Every effort 

 was made to keep it alive and feed it. It displayed 



