-^ New Light on the Tragedy of Civilisation 



brought about the formation of the " Society for the 

 Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire," which 

 devotes itself to the protection of animal life in general 

 throughout the world-v^ide British dominions. 



Let us now follow a little more closely, under the 

 guidance of English writers, the process of the extermina- 

 tion of the South African animal world. This lamentable 

 work was completed very rapidly in the course of only 

 something like a hundred years. From numerous English 

 authorities, as well as from the publications of the Society 

 already named, I have been able to ascertain that the last 

 ''blaauwbok" was killed by the Boers in Cape Colony 

 about the year 1800. From extant sketches of this wild 

 animal, it appears that it was a smaller species of the 

 splendid horse-antelopes still to be found in other parts of 

 Africa. During the following seventy-five years the ex- 

 termination of several other kinds of animals was systemati- 

 cally carried out ; and exactly eighty years later the last 

 quagga, a kind of zebra i^Equus quagga) was killed by the 

 Boers. In England there is only one single specimen 

 preserved, and that in a very poor condition. It is to be 

 found in the British Museum. A further sacrifice to the 

 advancing Europeans was the giant, wide-mouthed, *' white " 

 rhinoceros {^Rhinoceros simus, Burch.), a mighty creature, 

 that formerly ranged in thousands over the grassy plains 

 of South Africa. The length of a horn taken from one of 

 them is given as 6 ft. 9 in., English measurement! Even 

 as late as the year 1884, a single trader was able to 

 pile up huge masses, small hills, of these rhinoceros horns 

 by equipping some four hundred tribesmen of the Matabele 



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