THE DECADENCE OF GREAT GAME 293 



may wander far afield over those very plains with- 

 out seeing even a solitary head of game. Only a few 

 springbok, blesbok, and one or two troops of black 

 wildebeest (white-tailed gnu), preserved by Dutch 

 farmers, remain to those once crowded wilds. Of 

 the Transvaal the same dismal story has to be told. 

 Soon after 1850 the Boers of these pastoral 

 republics awoke to the fact that the skins of these 

 myriads of beasts were marketable commodities. 

 For years they were hard at it killing out the game ; 

 but the end came at last, and since 1880 there has 

 been little animal life left to these territories. The 

 Boers became perfect adepts at skin-hunting, putting 

 in just sufficient powder to drive the missile home, 

 and carefully cutting out their bullets for use on 

 future occasions. So lately as 1876, when I first 

 wandered in Cape Colony, I well remember the 

 wagons coming down from the Free State and 

 Transvaal, loaded up with nothing but the skins of 

 blesbok, wildebeest, and springbok. This same miser- 

 able system of skin-hunting has been, unfortunately, 

 and still is, where any game remains, pursued in all 

 native states of South Africa. In those days, too, 

 the sight of wagons from the far interior, loaded up 

 with ivory, was not uncommon. I remember them 

 well. In 1875 the export of ivory through the Cape 

 Colony alone was worth £60,402. In 1885 it had 

 sunk to £2150 ! A pitiful contrast indeed ! 



