The Quagga 75 



reliable authority, thus writes in his book of travels : " The hills that 

 surrounded the plain of Geel-bek (a small river to the south-west of the 

 Great Karroo) were composed of a dark purple-coloured slate ; and among 

 these were seen prancing a small herd of that beautifully-marked animal 

 the zebra, and a great number of another species of wild horse, known in the 

 colony by the Hottentot name of qua-cha." But all travellers and hunters 

 speak of the quagga as a true lover of the wide and open plains, revelling in 

 a perfect state of unrestricted freedom. In the Appendix to his Wild Sports 

 of Souther?! Africa, the book which deals with his famous expedition in the 

 years 1836-37, Cornwallis Harris describes the habitat of the quagga thus : 

 " Still found within the Cape Colony. Inhabits the open plains south of 

 the Vaal River in immense herds." And again, " Moving slowly across the 

 profile of the ocean-like horizon, uttering a shrill barking neigh, of which 

 its name forms a correct imitation, long files of quaggas continually remind 

 the early traveller of a rival caravan on its march." My own inquiries 

 from old farmers, Dutch and British, in Cape Colony, who remembered the 

 quagga in the wild state, have always tended conclusively to show that 

 this animal was habitually a dweller upon the wide karroos and plains. 



This animal, like the rest of the zebras, usually drank under cover of 

 darkness, at night or very early morning. Pringle, the poet of South 

 Africa, who lived in the wilderness as far back as 1821, and undoubtedly 

 knew the quagga and its habits very well, thus writes of it : — 



And the timorous quagga's wild whistling neigh 

 Is heard at the fountain at break of day. 



In pace the quagga seems to have been fairly fleet, though, perhaps, 

 from its more robust form, not quite so fast as the Burchell's zebra. 

 Sparrman, at all events, speaks of both quaggas and mountain zebras being 

 ridden down by the Cape colonists of his time. At the present day, 

 speaking from personal experience of the chase of Burchell's zebras, I can 



