KLOOF AND KARROO. 



and hippopotamus, and the defenceless giraffe, were 

 first exterminated, while most of the remainder have 

 only quitted the scene within the last generation. 

 I say that the hippopotamus is exterminated ; for, 

 although some are still to be found in the western 

 waters of the Orange River — the northern boundary 

 of the Colony — in the rivers of the Colony proper 

 they are undoubtedly extinct. I have mentioned in 

 a former chapter on Klipspringer Shooting that the 

 zebra {Equus montanus) still lingered in the wild 

 and remote mountains surrounding Naroekas Poort. 

 On the arrival of my friends and myself in the poort, 

 I was surprised to learn that a troop of zebras still 

 frequented this district ; and, further, that these 

 beautiful creatures were by no means of such 

 infrequent occurrence in the Colony as we had 

 imagined. My imagination was strangely kindled at 

 the news ; for I had believed that the true zebra 

 had, with its cousins the quagga and Burchell's 

 zebra, been long since exterminated or driven by the 

 tide of colonisation into the interior. Ever since 

 that time I have carefully followed the history of this 

 particular troop, and, as far as possible, of its 

 congeners in other parts of the Colony, and perhaps 

 the result of my observations may be useful. 



I believe that nineteen people out of twenty have 

 a vague idea that the zebra is an animal confined 

 exclusively to the wide karroos and rolling plains of 

 Southern Africa. 



The true zebra, the Equus montanus, Equus or 

 A sinus zebra, the hippotigris of the ancients, the 

 daow of the Hottentots, and the wilde paard (wild 

 horse) of the Cape Dutch, is purely and essentially 

 a mountain-abiding animal. It inhabits the most 



