vin CHARACTER OF THE CAPE BUFFALO 137 



river or anywhere to the south of it, throughout 

 Bechvvanaland. 



During the quarter of a century succeeding the 

 year 1871 (during which I first visited South Africa) 

 the range of the buffalo had been very much 

 curtailed, but up to 1896 these animals were still 

 numerous in many of the uninhabited parts of the 

 country, and especially so in the Pungwe river 

 district of South-East Africa. In the early part of 

 that most fatal year, however, the terrible epidemic 

 of rinderpest crossed the Zambesi, and besides 

 depleting nearly the whole of South Africa of cattle 

 before a stop was put to its ravages by Dr. Koch, 

 almost absolutely exterminated the buffaloes. The 

 few that remain will probably be gradually killed 

 off, I am afraid, and I think it quite likely that 

 before many more years have passed the only 

 buffaloes left in South Africa will be those living 

 in the Addo bush in the Cape Colony. 



There was always a considerable difference of 

 opinion amongst South African hunters in the old 

 pre-rinderpest times as to the character of the Cape 

 buffalo, but there is no doubt that this animal was 

 looked upon by all experienced men as a dangerous 

 antagonist under certain conditions, whilst by some 

 it was considered to be the most dangerous of all 

 African game. It is all a matter of individual 

 experience. A man who has shot two or three 

 lions and a few buffaloes, and who. whilst having 

 had no trouble with the former animals, has been 

 charged and perhaps only narrowly escaped with 

 his life from one or more of the latter, will naturally 

 consider the buffalo to be a more dangerous animal 

 than a lion, and vice versa. 



Personally I consider that, speaking generally, 

 the South African lion is a much more dangerous 

 animal than the South African buffalo, for not only 

 can a lion hide much more easilv and rush on to its 



