viii PREFACE. 



flesh and blood. Even now, during the rush of Europeans 

 to the Transvaal gold-fields, and beyond, the Old Colony 

 is left behind unnoticed and unknown. This is not as it 

 should be, for the Cape, with her millions of acres of 

 good land now lying dormant and useless, her undoubted 

 mineral wealth just beginning to be discovered, and her 

 magnificent climate and scenery, surely deserves a better 

 fate. Here, indeed, lies a country only now awaiting the 

 presence of British capital and British blood to prove 

 herself capable of supporting thousands upon thousands 

 of our overcrowded population. The Cape has never 

 yet had a fair chance. In my judgment, after many a 

 disaster, many a bitter disappointment, the time has 

 come when, having borne the burden and heat of the 

 day, that chance should be given to her. Recent gold 

 discoveries in the Colony, and the tardy appointment of 

 a Geological Department, may tend greatly to hasten 

 such a consummation. 



In the chapter on the Present Distribution of the 

 Antelopes and Larger Game, I have been at great pains 

 to bring my researches down to the most recent date, 

 and with that object I have, since I left the Colony, been 

 in constant communication with friends and correspondents 

 in various districts. 



I have to thank Dr. Sclater, Fellow and Secretary of the 

 Zoological Society, for permission to make use of the 

 Society's Library, and obtain drawings (from the works 

 of Dr. Andrew Smith and others) of some of the Cape 



