BLESBOK 83 
BLESBOK (Damaliscus albifrons). 
Formerly to be numbered by hundreds of thousands, the beautiful 
Blesbok has in the last twenty years grown very scarce indeed. It 
can now scarcely be reckoned as a South African beast of chase, being 
only met with in small numbers on a few Boer farms in the Transvaal 
and the Orange Free State. Yet, thirty or forty years ago, Blesboks 
often literally darkened the face of the land with their innumerable 
legions. The north of the Cape Colony, Griqualand West, the Free 
State, and the plains of the Western and Southern Transvaal, may be 
described as the true home of this charming antelope in the good days. 
In 1848 Gordon Cumming speaks of a sight he beheld in the Blesbok 
country. “The plains,” he says, “exhibited one purple mass of graceful 
Blesboks, which extended without a break as far as my eyes could 
strain ; the depth of their vast legions covered a breadth of about six 
hundred yards.” What a contrast with the scarcity of the present day ! 
HEIGHT about 3 feet 4 inches. WEIGHT about 200 lbs. 
Distribution—Carefully preserved on some open high veldt farms 
of Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, and Bechuana- 
land. 
Length on Circum- : : : 
an Curee: (aeaces Tip to Tip. Habitat. Owner. 
18} Gre 124 South Africa . | Sir Edmund G. Loder, Bart. 
174 63 7 Merrie-Metzie . | Abe Bailey. 
162 68 gh Orange Free State | Julius Jeppe. 
163 64 8} South Africa . | Sir Edmund G. Loder, Bart. 
152 6} 5a Do. ‘ . | A, Beit. 
155 6 84 Do. ; . | Capt. F. H. Lehmann. 
