LARGE GAME OF CAPE COLONY. 297 



thousands ; but the inclosure of farms is just 

 beginning in many parts of the Great Karroo, and 

 will have some influence on the free range of the 

 antelopes on this great sun-dried plateau. As an 

 instance, however, of inclosure in some cases tending 

 to preserve game in the Colony, the Graaff Reinet 

 Advertiser, of November, 1886, mentions that 

 Shirlands, the property of Mr. John Priest, of that 

 district, was, twelve or thirteen years ago, a piece of 

 waste land abandoned to squatters. Now there are 

 16,000 morgen (more than 32,000 acres) fenced with 

 wire. Within this fence there are now fully a 

 thousand springboks, where formerly only a few 

 remained " harassed and hunted to death by 

 impoverished, lazy squatters." 



The northern parts of the colonial divisions of 

 Little Namaqualand, and of Calvinia, Fraserburg, 

 Carnarvon, and Victoria West, formerly called 

 Great Bushmanland, will, from their arid nature, 

 long provide comparatively undisturbed sanctuary 

 for large numbers of "the showy buck," as the 

 Boers sometimes call this beautiful creature. 



The Rietbok (Eleotragus arundinaceus) is, I believe, 

 now nearly extinct within the Colony. As far back as 

 1830 it seems to have been somewhat scarce even in 

 the Eastern province, its natural habitat, and from 

 its nature and habits was easily shot. It is possible 

 a few specimens may still linger in the denser 

 parts of the Fish River thicket, but it is, I think, 

 improbable. 



The Vaal or Grey Rhebok (Pelea capreola) is, as 

 I pointed out in a former chapter, plentiful on most 

 of the mountain ranges of the Colony, and is likely 

 to remain so. 



