174 NATURE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA 



this zebra may still be found in large troops, its 

 range becomes yearly more restricted. The Boers 

 of South Africa first discovered the marketable 

 value of zebra and quagga skins, and in consequence 

 the plains of the Orange Free State and Transvaal, 

 where scores upon scores of thousands of these 

 quadrupeds were to be found forty or fifty years since, 

 are now completely denuded of them. In all the 

 Transvaal, I know of only one farm (in the Marico 

 district) where a few remaining Burchell's zebras 

 are carefully preserved — by an Englishman — the 

 poor remnant of the immense herds of these 

 beautiful creatures, which up to the middle of this 

 century decorated all that vast region. 



In going up-country at the present time one 

 has to cross the Kalahari and strike the Botletli river 

 before one can find these animals. There, and from 

 thence to the Zambesi, they may still be found in fair 

 numbers. In Mashonaland, and eastward to the coast, 

 they are still plentiful — especially about the Pungwe 

 river ; but miners, pioneers, and hunters are already 

 at work in this region, and the game is going fast. 

 The zebra is easily shot, and, once wounded, turns 

 out from the troop and is soon secured. It appears 

 to be, next to the eland, the softest of all the South 

 African game, which as a rule are endowed with 

 intense vitality. By far the handsomest of the 

 zebra family — indeed, one may say of the whole 



