THE HARTEBEEST IN SOUTH AFRICA 231 



recently killed a number of these antelopes. The 

 hartebeests seemed to have passed the pool of water 

 here and gone straight to the brack-pan. The soft 

 limestone rock forming the pan had been completely 

 hollowed out in places at the edge by the tongues 

 of the myriads of game during untold centuries, and 

 the surface of the pan itself was smooth and clean 

 from the same reason. There are still considerable 

 numbers of hartebeests about all this part of British 

 Bechuanaland, and if the new game laws can be 

 enforced (a difficult matter in a wild, almost un- 

 policed region), and the natives restrained from 

 their indiscriminate slaughter, the species would 

 soon become again abundant. We, and our neigh- 

 bours, near the junction of the Maritsani and Setla- 

 goli rivers, had two or three troops of hartebeest 

 on our runs. These animals were seldom or never 

 disturbed (we only hunted them on two occasions), 

 and they were in the habit of roaming freely from 

 farm to farm — here, as yet, quite unfenced. In 

 consequence of their immunity they had become 

 comparatively tame, and were often encountbied. 

 It was a great pleasure to see them. When I left 

 our huts at the junction of the Maritsani and Set- 

 lagoli, in 1890, to proceed further north, some 

 neighbours took my place. A little later in the 

 year some of these hartebeests were in the habit 

 of passing the huts within sight of the inhabitants 



