CHAPTER XXI 



THE SABLE ANTELOPE 



Captain Cornwallis Harris — The Transvaal sixty years since — 

 The Zwart-wit-pens — Native names — Its characteristics 

 and beauty — Discovery in 1837 — Harris's first hunt — A 

 glorious momeDt — Eange of the Sable Antelope — Opening 

 up of Mashonaland — Extirpation of game — Found north 

 of the Zambesi — Specimens in Europe — The Zoological 

 Gardens examples — Chances of survival. 



In 1836 an officer of Bombay Engineers — Captain 

 William Cornwallis Harris (afterwards knighted for 

 services on a mission to Abyssinia), perhaps the 

 most enthusiastic sportsman-natm-alist that ever 

 explored South Africa — journeyed from the Cape 

 Colony through Southern Bechuanaland, and thence 

 into the territory now called Transvaal, at that time 

 absolutely a terra incognita. Here the very cream 

 of big-game shooting awaited him, and it may well 

 be doubted whether any hunter before his time (cer- 

 tainly no other since) ever wandered through so 

 magnificent a game preserve as the virgin Transvaal 

 country then was. 



Harris passed through some of the fairest parts 

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