32 THE SOCIETY FOE THE PBESEBVATION OE 



the Boers invariably camped some way from the kraals. Following 

 up the Singwitsi, I at length arrived at a district which had not 

 been hunted by white men for two years. Here for a stretch of, 

 fifteen miles were koodoo, tressebe, ostrich, reodbuck, waterbuck, 

 and impala, not in any numbers, but a few troops of each. They 

 are systematically hunted by the natives from the Levubu (or 

 Pafuri), where hunting camps are everywhere in evidence ; they 

 use bows and poisoned arrows, though the damage they do in a 

 year will not equal that done by a few Boers in a week ; still, where 

 game is so very scarce it should be put a stop to. Travelling 



further' up the river, I found game again 



reduced to vanishing 



quantity. The natives said that a party of Boers from Spelonken 

 had travelled along this part of the Singwitsi with a Scotch cart, 

 of which I saw the spoor, and shot all the game here and on the 

 Shishwa Eiver, which is a tributary of the Levubu. I saw the 

 spoor of two giraffes, however, which I was told were still alive. 

 The Boers I refer to were, I understand, reported and punished 

 at Pietersburg. 



' Elephants have not crossed into the Transvaal since the war ; 

 during its progress a herd came in from Portuguese territory, and 

 eight of them were shot by Boers on the Letaba. This was about 

 tin: whole herd. There are still a few left in Portuguese territory 

 on the Singwitsi Eiver, but I fear we have seen the last of them in 

 the Transvaal. Boers shot three in the first-mentioned district 

 (i.e., in Portuguese territory) about two months ago. 



' Eland were exterminated by the Boers during the war ; there 

 are none now left, though they still exist in Portuguese territory, 

 some two days' march from the border. There are, I fancy, no 

 eland in the Transvaal except eight preserved on a private farm 

 near Godwaan, on Pretoria-Dclagoa Eailway. 



' Bhinoceros.—The last one was shot by the Boers during the 

 war. The only rhinoceros left in the Transvaal Game Eesorve is 

 the one in the Sabi bush, near the Natumere Eiver. 



' Buffalo. — None since the rinderpest. 



' Hippo. — There are some on the Letaba and I believe on the 

 Levubu. Boers shot two Transvaal hippo this winter below the 

 Letaba-Oliphants Junction. They were, however, in Portuguese 

 territory. Unfortunately, in a dry season the hippo migrate down 

 the rivers in search of deep pools, and so get out of reach of game 

 laws. 



' Sable Antelope. — There an; a few on the Itendi Eiver, and 

 there may be some on the Singwitsi, though I have seen no 

 spoor. 



' Roan Antelope. — I saw no signs of this animal, except the 

 head-skin of one killed by the Boers. Some of the natives said it 

 was killed on the Itendi Eiver (Transvaal), others in Portuguese 

 territory ; in fact, they did not know. They said there used to be 

 roan, but they had seen none for a long time. 



' Koodoo. — This fine antelope appears still, in a measure, to hold 

 its own, and I saw a troop of seven, and two other individual 



