Chapter XXI. 

 THE TRUE UNICORN. 



THE Cape of Good Hope claims as the 

 supporters of its coat of arms two antelopes 

 — one, perhaps, the noblest, the other the 

 most fantastic, of that astonishing array with which 

 South Africa is so bountifully endowed. Of these, 

 the famous gemsbok (pronounced by the Boers, 

 gutturally, " hemsbok ") is one ; the curious black 

 wildebeest, or white-tailed gnu (now, by the way, 

 much scarcer than the brindled gnu), the other. 

 Until towards the middle of this century both these 

 antelopes were to be found upon every wide-spreading 

 karroo of the Cape Colony. But, such has been the 

 fierceness of the war of extermination waged against 

 the nobler of the fauna, the black wildebeest 

 {Catoblepas gnu) is now almost practically extinct 

 within the ancient colonial limits — saving on one or 

 two farms, where they are yet preserved, in the 

 Western province ; while the peerless gemsbok [Oryx 

 capensis), the prototype of the fabled unicorn, has, 

 with the exception of the small number that still 

 linger in the wastes of Northern Bushmanland, been 

 in the same manner exterminated. 



A very noticeable feature in connection with the 

 fauna of Southern Africa is the apparent fickleness 

 of its geographical distribution. Many animals, 

 for some unsolved reason, have their habitats 



