KLOOF AND KARROO. 



thirsty veldt. After this, we adjourned to supper, 

 and thence to Mr. Evans's sanctum, to indulge in 

 pipes and a glass of " Cape smoke." During the 

 evening, we arranged our plan of campaign against 

 the springboks on the morrow, and it was finally 

 settled that Bob and I, with Mr. Evans's son, Edgar, 

 should rise before dawn, and get out on the veldt, 

 among the bok, under cover of darkness. By so 

 doing we should probably get a good shot or two 

 before H., later on in the morning, came out to us 

 with horses, when we were to try a " springbok 

 drive." I may mention here that a herd of some 

 4,000 of these beautiful antelopes grazed upon 

 Mr. Evans's veldt, some 256 square miles in extent, 

 and numbers of them could be always seen grazing 

 quietly within a few hundred yards of the house 

 door. The springbok, the ostrich, and the steinbok, 

 are now the only representatives on the Great 

 Karroo of the teeming herds of game that formerly 

 abounded there. It is not so very many years since 

 the gemsbok, wildebeest, hartebeest, ostrich, and 

 quagga imparted life and beauty to these parched 

 plains. In 1837, when Captain Cornwallis Harris 

 (one of the most accomplished of South African 

 hunters and naturalists) passed through the Colony, 

 an his way to the country now called Transvaal, 

 then a terra incognita, he met with the black wilde- 

 beest, quagga, and ostrich, in large numbers on the 

 karroos not far from here. 



In a curious old map, illustrating Barrow's travels, 

 published in 1804, the karroo region is marked as 

 abounding with the eland, gemsbok, hartebeest, 

 quacha (quagga), wildebeest or gnu, ostrich, 

 springbok, lion, and other animals. Most of these 



