Some Remarks on the Shooting Horse and the 

 Hunting of Large Game. 



If we except those portions of the low-lying and most unhealthy- 

 country on the East Coast between the mouths of the Zambesi and 

 Crocodile Rivers which are impenetrable to horses on account of 

 the presence of the tsetse fly pest,* all the ordinary larger game 

 (if the Koodoo and different varieties of water-loving antelopes be 

 excluded) nowadays roam so far from the permanent waters as to 

 render hunting on foot almost a sport of the past. The success of a 

 hunting trip in the Interior of South Africa largely, if not wholly, 

 depends on the sportsman being in possession of good shooting 

 horses, and when such have been obtained every endeavour should 

 be made to preserve them from the fatal ravages of African horse 

 sickness. 



An attempt is being made by the Colonial Government, and by 

 many of the leading scientists in Europe, to discover some antidote 

 to this dreadful scourge, but it is feared no beneiicial results have 

 accrued from their labours up to the time of writing.t The disease 

 is far more prevalent and deadly in its effect in the Interior than 

 in other portions of South Africa, but it is noteworthy that with 

 the advance of civilization Northward, the malady equally loses its 

 virulence and becomes more or less stamped out. In corroboration 

 of this statement, it may be mentioned that in the early days of the 

 diamond discoveries at Kimberley it was found almost impossible to 



* This pest is referred to at length in the description of the Buffalo. 



t Mr. Strombom, the well-known Interior trader, has been employed by the Colonial 

 Government to conduct a series of practical tests with a remedy which he asserts he 

 has discovered, and for this purpose the horses of the Bechuanaland Border Police at 

 Madoutsie, in the Protectorate, have been placed at his service. The results are, 

 however, not yet known, although there is reason to believe the experiments have been 

 attended with some success. In our opinion no cure exists for this fatal sickness, but 

 a good preventive is recommended, viz. : Place a pinch of carbolic disinfectant powder 

 in the nosebag every night at sundown, care being taken not to remove the latter on 

 any consideration until the sun is well up the following morning and all traces of dew 

 have disappeared. 



