CHAPTER XVII 



THE VANISHING ELAND 



Former abundance in Cape Colony — Last sanctuary in the 

 Kalahari — Persecution by native hunters — Difficulties of 

 protection — Disappearance of the fauna— The Eland easily 

 destroyed — Its present haunts — Approaching extinction 

 of the unstriped Eland — Former habitat — The striped 

 Eland — Immense size of Elands — Large troops — Elands 

 in captivity — A dainty beast of chase — Prospect of pre- 

 servation. 



Amongst the rapidly disappearing forms of South 

 African game, the eland, noblest of all the antelopes 

 of the world, is unhappily taking the lead. Within 

 the memory of old men still alive, this great creature 

 roamed freely over many parts of Cape Colony, and 

 especially in the dry wastes of Bushmanland, which, 

 even to this hour, afford sanctuary to considerable 

 herds of springbok, as well as to the last representa- 

 tives in the old colony of the gemsbok and hartebeest. 

 Instead of finding the eland — as, with a little pre- 

 servation, it might well have been — still flourishing 

 in Cape Colony, one must now-a-days go far north to 



overtake it ; and even northward one has to pene- 

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