THE BLESBOK ANTELOPE 159 



were somewhat different to those of the south, and 

 is mentioned by Dr. Sparrman. Sir John Barrow 

 in 1797 seems also to have visited this haunt of the 

 blesbok, though not recognising the animals as new. 

 An antelope formerly exhibited in Exeter 'Change 

 is figured as the " blessbok " in Knight's " Museum 

 of Animated Nature ;" from the shape of the horns 

 it was obviously a young animal, as indeed is stated 

 in the accompanying letterpress, but there is a white 

 (not yellowish) mark near the tail, and the specimen 

 may not have been a blesbok at all, but an example 

 of the closely allied bontebok. Indeed a true 

 bontebok was exhibited in Exeter 'Change about 

 this time, according to the " Zoological Journal;" 

 the differences between blesbok and bontebok were 

 not realised till long after this date, and the 

 letterpress agrees with the latter rather than the 

 former animal. Steedman, however, in 1835 noted 

 the rarity of the former species in Cape Colony as 

 contrasted with its old-time abundance ; he states that 

 it was already "exceedingly scarce and only found 

 in the remoter districts, unless the bontebok 

 A. pygarga of Pallas, still found in the vicinity of 

 Zwellendam, should prove to be the same animal." 

 Sir Cornwallis Harris in 1837 made a special visit 

 to the bontebok preserve at Cape Agulhas, in order 

 to determine whether blesbok and bontebok were 

 one and the same species ; and in his large work on 

 South African animals gives a picture of the bontebok 



