234 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



water-mills, and the enclosure of pastoral farms 

 are, under the improved conditions of farming, 

 coming so much more into vogue, that I fear the 

 springbok will, not many years hence, be driven to 

 its strongholds and sanctuaries in the arid regions 

 of the north-west of the Colony. There the country 

 is so vast, so little settled, and so waterless, that 

 many years must elapse before this beautiful and 

 characteristic South African antelope is finally 

 exterminated within the Colony. Even then there 

 will remain beyond the Orange River the vast 

 solitudes of the Kalahari Desert, where the 

 springbok teems in countless numbers. Pringle, in 

 one of his poems, says : 



O'er the brown karroo the bleating cry 

 Of the springbok's fawn sounds plaintively. 



And I am inclined to think and hope that the 

 springbok's bleat will be heard on South African 

 veldt long after most of the other antelopes are 

 extinct. From its fecundity, its fleetness, its 

 timidity, and extreme wariness, it seems probable 

 that this antelope will decorate for another century 

 the sun-dried pastures whereon it has disported 

 itself for, probably, some thousands of years. 



