THE VANISHING ELAND 223 



it down and slain it, calls it contemptuously a " mere 

 cow." Not the most beautiful Alderney or Jersey 

 that ever stepped can vie with the eland in its best 

 points. The coat of this antelope is wonderfully 

 clean, smooth, and short, so much so, that a child 

 would stroke it with delight. As the animal becomes 

 older, the hair thins and disappears, so that in the 

 old bulls the skin shines through, and the general 

 colour is a bluish-grey. Strip the skin off a fresh- 

 killed eland, and the sweet smell of aromatic herbage 

 upon which the animal has fed comes warm into 

 your nostrils. No beast of the chase is so sweet, 

 clean, and dainty as this fine antelope, a remarkable 

 fact, if its immense size be taken into consideration. 

 Can nothing be done to stay the utter extermina- 

 tion of this and others of the great fauna of South 

 Africa ? Mr. Rhodes has his hands very full, or he 

 could do much. Yet, if he and the High Commis- 

 sioner of South Africa would put their heads 

 together, some scheme of conserving wild game in a 

 National or Colonial Park might without great diffi- 

 culty be set on foot. Land is cheap enough, in all 

 conscience. Already on the De Beers estate, near 

 Kimberley, a number of the smaller wild animals 

 have been gathered together — thanks to Mr. Rhodes 

 — in a large enclosure. And at Mr. Rhodes' s own 

 estate of Groot Schuur, near Cape Town, a number 

 of fine animals are preserved. On a greater scale, 



