204 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



but he was proud in the knowledge that he 

 had shown his mettle and retrieved his reputa- 

 tion. 



" Twelve years are gone, and ' Bashom ' has 

 a happy home in the green fields of Essex, 

 enjoying the rest that he earned so well in 

 those strenuous days. It may be that, now 

 and again, as his ' human eye ' gleams with 

 gratitude to his benefactress, he recalls the 

 fierce scent of the battle-smoke and the flash 

 of the sword." 



The zebra, another exclusively African type, 

 is a wild horse in a tiger's skin, or as such, at any 

 rate, it impresses all who see it for the first time. 

 Time was, not long ago, when Africa produced 

 four different kinds of zebra. But the Boers 

 (being as fond of zebra meat as lions are) ex- 

 terminated one of these known as the quagga, the 

 last survivor dying in captivity in 1883, so that 

 (as in the case of the Little Nigger Boys) there 

 are now only three. One, the mountain zebra, 

 is also called the common zebra, though, as 

 a matter of fact, it is very scarce, being found 

 only in the high mountains of Cape Colony, 

 where it is strictly preserved. Else it might 

 have gone the way of the quagga. The two 

 others are named after Burchell and Grevy. 

 The last named, which has its home in 

 Abyssinia, is also very rare, and it was said 

 at the time that the market value of a fine pair 



