ORDER ARTIODACTYLA: EVEN-TOED UNGULATES . 657 



of the blesboks throughout the greater part of their range in a surprisingly 

 short space of time. When I first visited South Africa in 1871, vast numbers 

 of blesboks certainly still existed on both sides of the Vaal River, but some 

 fifteen years later practically none were left anywhere, except on a few 

 farms in the Orange Free State and the Southern Transvaal .... Whilst 

 travelling from Potchefstroom in the Transvaal to Kronstad in the Orange 

 Free State early in 1875, I met with very large numbers of blesboks. . . . 



Two years later, in the neighbourhood of the Hartz River, in the South- 

 western Transvaal, I for the last time saw blesboks collected together in 

 large numbers. They were then, however, being shot down for the sake of their 

 skins with pitiless persistence, and by 1885 but few were left anywhere but 

 on a few farms .... The furthest point north where I ever met with blesboks 

 was in the province of Marico, in the north-west of the Transvaal, on the 

 plains to the south of the Dwarsberg. 



In 1848, along the Vet River in Orange Free State, Gumming 

 (1850, vol. 2, pp. 242-243) came upon "herds of thousands of bles- 

 boks." "The plain exhibited one purple mass of graceful blesboks, 

 which extended without a break as far as my eye could strain: the 

 depth of their vast legions covered a breadth of about six hundred 

 yards." 



Bryden (1899, pp. 187-189) writes as follows: 



In British Bechuanaland they still ranged freely in small herds until about 

 1882 .... But after the expedition of Sir Charles Warren in 1884-85, and the 

 influx of white settlers, blesboks disappeared. ... A year or two since 

 (1897) ... a few blesboks were straying back into Bechuanaland. . . . 



I myself have seen, three-and-twenty years ago, the waggons rolling down 

 country to Port Elizabeth from the Orange Free State and Transvaal loaded 

 up with the dried skins of blesbok and springbok. And any middle-aged 

 London hide-broker will tell you that from five-and-twenty to forty years 

 ago tens of thousands of blesbok skins, among the pelts of other South African 

 animals, were annually disposed of at the Mincing Lane Sale Rooms. 



In the whole of the Orange Free State and Transvaal there are now re- 

 maining probably not more than 3000 head of these once innumerable 

 antelopes. 



"In actually protected conditions blesbok and springbok exist 

 only in the Sommerville Reserve" in the Orange Free State (Herbert 

 Lang, in litt., January 23, 1935). There are about 6,000 of the 

 former species in this reserve (J. Stevenson-Hamilton, in litt., Jan- 

 uary 22, 1933) . 



"It is estimated that there are now over 50,000 on farms in the 

 Orange Free State" (Ward, 1935, p. 67). 



The species is "in no danger, owing to the fact that it has a 

 definite market value: Blesbok forms the chief source of the venison 

 supply in the Union, and is bred on farms for the Markets in 

 Johannesburg" (G. C. Shortridge, in litt., October 14, 1937) . 



There is a herd of ten in the Giant Castle game reserve in Natal 

 (Administrator's Office, Natal, in litt., December, 1936) . 



22 



