NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



parts. But, like most other big game, this species 

 of antelope has been ruthlessly slaughtered by- 

 unscrupulous huntsmen. If it had not been for 

 the foresight and love of preservation of the South 

 African fauna of a few worthy landed proprietors, 

 whose names I will mention further on, who came 

 to settle in what they then called Overberg, it is 

 quite evident that the beautiful Bontebok, so much 

 admired to-day by lovers of game animals, would 

 have belonged to the list of extinct antelopes. In 

 the year 1837 Mr. Alexander Van der Byl, the then 

 proprietor of ' Nacht Wacht,' seeing that the Bonte- 

 bok was becoming a fast disappearing species, con- 

 structed a large camp of some 6000 acres on the 

 western side of the Kars river, partly with galvanised 

 wire and iron standards, and partly with a stone 

 wall ; and on the eastern side the water of the Kars 

 river formed a natural boundary, and in this enclosure 

 he succeeded in preserving some twenty-seven 

 Bonteboks which gradually increased and diminished 

 again in times of severe droughts, to which South 

 Africa is so frequently subjected. The original 

 twenty-seven antelopes have increased to 180, still 

 in existence, and carefully preserved by the present 

 owner of the farm. The example of Mr. Van der 

 Byl to preserve the Bontebok was soon followed by 

 the adjoining proprietors of Zeekoe Vley, who, 

 although he did not go to the extent of expenses 

 as his more well-to-do and progressive neighbour 

 to fence in his Bontebok, found out that he could 

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