CAPTAIN CORNWALLIS HARRIS'S EXPERIENCES. 6 1 



Captain Cornwallis Harris, while travelling near 

 the Meritsame River (South Africa), Oct. 9, 1836 

 relates the following details of what he saw : 



" I went in pursuit of a troop of brindled gnoos, and 

 presently came upon another, which was joined by a third 

 still larger then by a vast herd of zebras, and again by 

 more gnoos with sassaybes, and hartebeests, pouring down 

 from every quarter until the landscape literally presented the 

 appearance of a moving mass of game. Their incredible 

 numbers so impeded their progress that I had no difficulty 

 in closing with them." * 



We append another sketch by the same officer of the 

 great herds seen by him near this same locality: 



" We soon perceived large herds of quaggas and brindled 

 gnoos, which continued to join each other until the whole 

 plain seemed alive. The clatter of their hoofs was perfectly 

 astounding, and I could compare it to nothing but the din 

 of a tremendous charge of cavalry or the rushing of a mighty 

 tempest. I could not estimate the numbers at less than 

 15,000, a great extent of country being actually chequered 

 black and white with their congregated masses. The long 

 necks of troops of ostriches were also to be seen, towering 

 above the heads of their less gigantic neighbours, and sailing 

 away with astonishing rapidity. Groups of purple sassaybes 

 and brilliant red and yellow hartebeests likewise lent their 

 aid to complete the picture, which beggars all attempts at 

 description." f 



The following sketches are from the pen of Mr. 

 Roualeyn Gordon Gumming of Altyre, African 

 Traveller and Hunter. This celebrated man, a scion of an 

 ancient Scotch family, was a born hunter and sportsman. 



* Wild Sports of Southern Africa. Exploration from the Cape of 

 Good Hope to the Tropic of Capricorn in 1836 and 1837, by Capt. 

 William Cornwallis Harris, Bombay Engineers, H.E.I.C.S., publ. 1841, 

 pp. 54 and 55. 



f Ibid., p. 60. 



