The Koodoo 441 



growing either on rocky hillsides or on level ground. And wherever in 

 South Africa these two conditions were fulfilled — with the single exception 

 of the forests of the Knysna — I believe that koodoos were once to be 

 found. In the early part of the present century, koodoos were numerous 

 in many parts of the eastern province of the Cape Colony, but they had 

 become exceedingly rare in those districts at the date of my first visit to 

 South Africa in 1871. Since that time, thanks to wise legislation on the 

 part of the Cape Government, and the loyal support given to the game- 

 laws by the British and Dutch farmers, koodoos have lately very much 

 increased in numbers in some of their old haunts within that territory ; and 

 in 1895 I was informed by a well-known local sportsman in Port Elizabeth 

 that there were supposed to be at least 800 koodoos in the district of 

 Zwaart Ruggens alone. I do not know whether the first Europeans who 

 travelled through the countries lying along the south-east coast of Africa 

 between the St. Johns River and the Tugela met with any koodoos, but if 

 not, it must have been because these animals had already been exterminated 

 by the large native populations inhabiting Pondoland and Natal. 



North of the Tugela River the koodoo was, until quite recently, a 

 common animal along every river flowing into the Indian Ocean, as far 

 north as the mouth of the Buzi along the coast line ; its range extending 

 along the course of all such rivers, and the tributaries of all such rivers, 

 up to the edge of the high open plateaus in which they take their rise. 



On the northern bank of the Zambesi it is again found, and is abundant 

 along the Shire and its tributaries, and in all suitable localities throughout 

 British Central Africa. But, curiously enough, it is unknown along the 

 Pungwe River and its tributaries, and in fact throughout all the coast country 

 between the Buzi and the Zambesi Rivers. 



Fifty years ago koodoos were common in the country now known as 

 the Orange Free State, along the course of the Vaal River and its tributaries, 

 and when travelling through Griqualand in 1871 I saw the head and skin 

 3 L 



