146 



A Breath from the Veldt 



formation of the National South African Park, which has already begun to be 



discussed. 



Though the species is gone from the countries south of the Transvaal, there 

 is still a fair number in the northern forests of that country, and these are not 

 confined to " a few troops which still linger," as most books on the subject 

 would give us to understand. The fact is, very little hunting goes on in these 

 countries, owing to absence of water and thickness of the bush ; the amount pf 

 game still to be found there cannot therefore be very much less than in the 



HEADS OF YOUNG AND OLD KOODOO BULLS 



greater part of Mashonaland, which is very much hunted. The following 

 speaks for itself Each of the four hunters whom I trekked up with killed on 

 an average ten koodoos in three months, besides a lot of pallah and blue wilde- 

 beests ; and this too, in every instance, close to the main road in the Transvaal. 

 If then they could do this, there must surely be a very fair quantity of game in 

 the hundreds of untrodden miles in the south-west and east of the several drifts 

 of the Limpopo. In Mashonaland the koodoo is probably only reduced in 

 numbers near the transport roads, while still plentiful in the neighbourhood of 

 all the rivers and pans of that country where the bush is suitable to its habits. 



