2i8 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



Gordon Cumming's day, completed, absolutely, the 

 work of extirpation in these lands. In one year 

 alone, after the discovery of Lake N' Garni (1849), 

 Livingstone tells us that 900 elephants were slain 

 in the region of the Great Lake. What wealth of 

 animal life, although backed by countless years of 

 undisturbed freedom and repose, could withstand 

 the barbarous ravages of so short-sighted a policy ? 

 North Bechuanaland, including its Zambesi borders, 

 and the Mababe veldt — once a great hunting ground 

 — and the Lake N'Gami regions, are now all but 

 completely denuded of ivory. Passing yet further 

 to the westward, across the Kalahari, which now 

 shares the dearth of Bechuanaland, we reach the 

 countries of the Namaquas and Damaras. Here 

 the same miserable history has to be recorded. 

 Since the time of the explorer, Charles Andersson, 

 between 1850 and i860, when elephants were found 

 in abundance in South- West Africa, succeeding 

 years have seen the professional hunters pursuing 

 without mercy or cessation their work of slaughter, 

 and elephants may now be found no further 

 south than Ovampoland, where the native 

 hatred of the white man has alone protected 

 them. The ivory trade of South Africa has, 

 with the decline of elephant life, decayed 

 in like ratio. In 1875, the value of ivory exported 

 through Cape Colony was ^^60,402 ; in 1886, it was 

 ;^2,i5o! In 1873, ;^I7,I99 worth of ivory was 

 exported from Natal; in 1885, but ^^4,100 worth! 

 Beyond these Austral-African regions, where ivory 

 is now as scarce as it was but a few years since 

 superabundant, the progress of extirpation goes on 

 apace. Portuguese and Arab hunters have for years 



