54 BURCHELL'S ZEBRA. 



they are sufficiently docile to be used alone. In 1893 

 BurclielFs zebras were on sale in the Cape at prices varying 

 from £10 and upwards, and several have recently been 

 imported into this country for the purpose of demonstrating 

 their utility as beasts of draught, to ascertain their pro- 

 lificacy in this country with their own and other species, 

 and their capabilities of adaptation to the conditions of life 

 that here obtain. 



Writing of this species from Johannesburg in the Transvaal 

 in December, 1892, Mr. Harold Stephens states: — 



'^ You will be pleased to hear that an effort is being made 

 in the Transvaal to domesticate and use the zebra for 

 purposes of draught. On hearing that Messrs. Zeedesberg, 

 the coach contractors, who run passengers and mails from 

 Pretoria in the Transvaal to Fort Tuli in Mashonaland, had 

 been successful in their efforts in training the zebra, I 

 determined to make full inquiries when next in Pretoria. 



^' Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal, is a very pretty 

 little town situated about thirty-five miles to the north of 

 Johannesburg, and as the sittings of the High Court are 

 held there, it was not long before I found myself, in com- 

 pany with others, journejang towards it in a coach and ten 

 horses, the usual method of travelling out here. Mr. James 

 Zeedesberg, who I met by appoiutment the next afternoon, 

 told me that his firm about two months ago bought eight 

 half-grown wild zebras from a hunter named Groblaar. 

 Groblaar caught them in a wild state between four and five 

 months ago by riding after and lassoing them. During 

 the last month they have been in training for harness, with 

 the result that four of them are perfectly quiet and well 

 trained, and the remaining four partially trained. The 

 place where they are located is at the station in Petersberg, 

 in the district of Zoutpansberg, Transvaal. It appears 



