44 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



themselves the right of felling the trees for ship 

 timber, we may assume that in maintaining this 

 restriction the Company indirectly protected the 

 blaauwbok by discouraging the visits of loafers ; 

 unfortunately the presence of even the Company's 

 workmen would be by no means an unmixed 

 blessing to the unfortunate antelopes, already 

 almost exterminated. The local farmers were 

 willing enough to shoot blaauwbok whenever a 

 chance offered, as appears from Sir John's account ; 

 indeed, at first he supposed that the antelopes 

 had gone under altogether a surmise which 

 happily proved unfounded at the time. Dr. Lich- 

 tenstein, the famous African traveller, and the 

 founder of the Berlin Zoological Gardens, mentions 

 the mountains near the Buffalo-jagt River, between 

 Swellendam and Algoa Bay, as a haunt of these 

 animals. 



The history of the blaauwbok is brief enough, 

 being little more than a record of senseless exter- 

 mination. The first notice of it appears to be that 

 of Kolben, who travelled in South Africa during 

 1700-1710. He called it the " Blue Goat," so that 

 the characteristic appearance of the hide had 

 evidently already been noted by the settlers. The 

 first specimen seen in Europe was an example sent 

 to Leyden, and carefully described by the Russian 

 naturalist Pallas in 1766. A blaauwbok, shot by 

 Col. Gordon, was also forwarded to Europe, and 



