THE BLAAUWBOK 



45 



was described by Dr. Allamand. In 1774 Thun- 

 berg gave the first indication of the approaching 

 extermination of the species ; during seventy odd 

 years the Cape Colony had made great progress, 

 and the animal was already becoming rare. This 

 cannot be wondered at, when we remember its 

 limited habitat, situated comparatively near Cape 

 Town ; perhaps the wonder is that it held out so 

 long. By 1781 the Valley of Soete Melk, accord- 

 ing to Le Vaillant, was the only place in which 

 the blaauwbok lingered ; it had become the " most 

 scarce and beautiful species of the African gazells." 

 Some fifteen years later, Sir John Barrow con- 

 cluded that the leucophaeus was "entirely lost to 

 the Colony," but he learnt in 1796-7 that a small 

 troop had appeared in the wooded hills behind the 

 Valley of Soete Melk, and that the farmers, far 

 from giving these survivors a last chance of re- 

 storing the race, lay in wait to shoot them. The 

 candle had burnt down in the socket ; a last 

 flicker of life is indicated by Lichtenstein who 

 speaks of them as occasionally appearing near 

 the Buffalo-jagt River, and relates that "some" 

 were shot in 1800. These were the last of their 

 race. 



Thirty-five years passed ; the opening up of 

 South Africa proceeded apace and the comforts 

 of civilisation spread further and further into the 

 wilderness. Explorers like Barrow, missionaries 



