The Springbuck 335 



miles, and the stench drove the Trek-Boers, who were camped near the 

 coast, far inland." Mr. Scully's testimony is unimpeachable, and may be 

 accepted as striking evidence of the numbers of the springbuck, even in 

 modern days, in the north-west regions of Cape Colony. 



In the year 1876 I first encountered the springbuck in large numbers 

 in the eastern part of the Great Karroo, where a friend of mine, the 

 late Mr. J. B. Evans of Riet Fontein, had a large unfenced run — about 

 132,000 acres — upon which grazed some 4000 of these animals. We used 

 to enjoy excellent sport with these springbuck, usually by spreading out on 

 horseback at wide intervals, riding down wind, and picking up a shot now 

 and again as we quietly advanced. At times the springbuck take to flight, 

 and scour away up wind. They stick with great pertinacity to a particular 

 point, and by dint of pressing one's horse, the sportsman can in this way 

 get within fairly easy range. But shooting at running springbuck is one of 

 the most difficult feats of marksmanship in the world. It is far better to 

 take the chance of a long shot at the animal as it stands, even although the 

 range be 400 or 500 yards. It is seldom less than 350 yards in Karroo 

 shooting. Cape carts — a kind of hooded, double-seated dog-cart — are 

 sometimes employed by the Cape sportsman ; but, to the uninitiated, the 

 horrors of a wild gallop over the rough Karroo veld, in which the driver 

 and gunner are tossed about and bruised like peas in a rattle, will hardly 

 recommend this method. Occasionally we slipped out on to the Karroo 

 before dawn, and, taking advantage of the wind, walked quietly into the 

 veld, and so got a shot or two at the grazing bucks as daylight broke. 

 Sometimes a dry river-bed may be made use of in stalking these animals. 

 The days of unfenced Karroo farms are, however, drawing to a close, 

 farmers are now fencing their runs with wire ; and, except in the wild 

 and remote deserts of Bushmanland, towards the Orange River, the free 

 range of the springbucks has been a good deal circumscribed. Shooting 

 upon enclosed runs, however large these may be in extent, is, in my own 



