THE BLUEBUCK OR BLAAUWBOK 



name of White Sable Antelope., by which they are 

 known in many native dialects ' (Great and Small 

 Game of Africa, p. 409). Le Vaillant well under- 

 stood what a prize he had obtained : he made a 

 drawing of it on the spot, and his Hottentot attend- 

 ant, who had secured the animal with a single shot, 

 skinned it as expertly as he had shot it, Le Vaillant 

 eventually bringing it to Europe on his return. 

 The valley of Soete Melk was the property of the 

 Dutch East India Company : Sir John Barrow 

 described it as an extensive tract of land near the 

 town of Swellendam, watered by the Zonder End 

 River, and bounded to the north by a range of 

 wooded hills. It was the last stronghold of the 

 Blaauwbok : unfortunately it did not shelter any 

 for very long after Le Vaillant's adventure, for some 

 fifteen years later Sir John Barrow already supposed 

 that the species was entirely * lost to the Colony.' 

 There was, however, a last flicker of the expiring 

 candle: during 1796-1797 Sir John learnt that 

 Blaauwbok had reappeared in the wooded hills 

 behind the valley of Soete Melk. They lasted till 

 1800, when the last survivors were shot, and sent 

 as skins to Leyden, though these specimens appear 

 to have since been lost. 



" Thirty-five years passed ; nothing more was 

 heard of the Blaauwbok ; all that remained to attest 

 that it had ever existed were five specimens pre- 

 served respectively in the museums at Leyden, 

 Paris, Stockholm, Upsala and Vienna. The opening 

 101 



