2 9 4 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



the blue wildebeest was, however, formerly a 

 denizen, albeit a rare one, south of the Orange 

 River, and that Dr. Smith and Cornwallis Harris 

 were, in this particular, mistaken or misinformed, 

 is proved by no less an authority than Gordon 

 Cumming. In December, 1843, when that great 

 hunter was shooting with Mr. Paterson, an officer 

 of the gist Regiment, in the karroo country west 

 of Colesberg, in what is now the Hope Town 

 division of the Cape Colony, the brindled gnu is 

 twice mentioned as having been shot. 



In his well-known work, " The Lion Hunter 

 of South Africa," Gordon Cumming says : "I 

 despatched one of my waggons to bring home the 

 oryx, and it returned about twelve o'clock that 

 night, carrying the skin of my gemsbok, and also a 

 magnificent old blue wildebeest (the brindled 

 gnu), which the Hottentots had obtained in an 

 extraordinary manner. He was found with one of his 

 forelegs caught over his horn, so that he could not 

 run, when they hamstrung him and cut his throat ; 

 he had probably managed to get himself into this 

 awkward attitude while fighting with some of his 

 fellows." And again, a few lines later, he writes : 

 " I lent him (Paterson) Cobus (a Hottentot), and on 

 this occasion his perseverance was rewarded by a 

 noble gemsbok, which he rode down and slew, and 

 also a fine bull blue wildebeest, which last animal is 

 rather rare in these parts" I have italicised these 

 last words. The reputation of Gordon Cumming is, 

 I think, sufficient to fully establish the fact that the 

 brindled gnu was formerly found within the Colony ; 

 but that, unlike its confrere, the black wildebeest, its 

 occurrence there was rare. It is singular, to say 



