286 NATURE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA 



wandered, free and undisturbed as they had wandered 

 through countless ages of the past, an unexampled 

 array of wild animals. 



The early Dutch settlers scarcely knew what to do 

 with this profusion of game. The elands and koodoos 

 broke into their gardens and vineyards, the elephants 

 and rhinoceroses made hay with their crops; the 

 lions besieged them in their fort, and even dogged 

 Governor Van Riebeek in his garden. There is a 

 pathetic yet ludicrous entry in the old records of the 

 Cape commanders, bearing date January 23, 1653. 

 *' This night," says the chronicle, " it appeared as if 

 the lions would take the fort by storm." 



Long after that time lions were plentiful on the 

 site of the present Cape Town. In 1694 a number of 

 cows were killed by them close to the fort. 



As the Dutch slowly pushed their way into the 

 interior they found the vast plains crowded with 

 countless herds of game. Springboks, blesboks, and 

 bonteboks pied the spreading veldt in hundreds of 

 thousands. The grotesque white-tailed gnus charged 

 and capered about the karroos, in company with 

 their constant allies, the quaggas and ostriches, in 

 immense troops. The stately eland — an antelope 

 surpassing the ox in bulk and stature — the noble 

 gemsbok, the original, as many men think, of the 

 fabled unicorn, the old-fashioned, yet marvellously 

 fleet, hartebeest, ran in unexampled plenty. You 



