WILD BEASTS' SKINS IN COMMERCE 261 



nothing but the skins of blesbok, wildebeest, and 

 springbok. This miserable system of skin-hunting has 

 been, and still is where any game remains, pursued in 

 all native States of South Africa. Between 1850 and 

 1875 it is certain that some millions of these animals 

 must have been destroyed in the Transvaal and Orange 

 Free State/ The slaughter was so prodigious, and the 

 variety of wild animals so great, in these wild regions 

 of South Africa, that the result made a sensible 

 difference in the leather industry of Europe. The 

 markets were filled with skins which, when tanned, 

 gave leather of a quality and excellence never known 

 before, but the origin of which, as the material was 

 still sold under old names, purchasers never suspected. 

 Hides of the zebra and quagga arrived in tens of 

 thousands ; and good as horse-hide is for the uppers of 

 first-class boots, these were even better. Smart 

 Englishmen for years wore boots the uppers of which 

 were made of zebra and quagga skin, or from the hides 

 of elands, oryx, and gemsbok disguised under the 

 names of ' calf' or patent leathers. 



These South African game skins became a com- 

 mercial article, relied upon for many years as part of 

 the regular supply. It is amusing to note that 

 quagga-skins are still quoted as part of this, the fact 

 being that the last of the quaggas was killed years ago 

 to fill the skin-hunter's pocket. In Mashonaland and 



