THE EXTINCT QUAGGA 257 
the flesh of the quagga was almost uneatable by Europeans, 
although it was keenly relished by the Hottentots, who, 
in the early days of the Cape Colony, were largely fed 
upon it by their Dutch masters. Whether this was the 
cause of its comparatively early disappearance from that 
part of the country, it is now impossible to say, but 
certain it is that when Sir Cornwallis Harris made his 
trip to the interior in 1836, quaggas were no longer to 
be met with in any numbers in Cape Colony, although 
Colonel Hamilton Smith, writing a few years later, states 
that they were still to be found within its limits. North 
of the Vaal River they occurred, however, in their original 
multitudes, and it was not till about the middle of the 
last century that the Boers took to hide-hunting, and 
thus in a few years accomplished the extermination of the 
species. 
Allusion has already been made to the facility with 
which the quagga could be broken to harness, and it 
seems probable that the species could have been more 
easily domesticated than any of its South African relatives. 
Another trait in its disposition is worth brief mention. It 
was said to be the boldest and fiercest of the whole equine 
tribe, attacking and driving off both the wild dog and the 
spotted hyaena. On this account the Boers are stated 
to have frequently kept a few tame quaggas on their 
farms, which were turned out at night to graze with the 
horses in order to protect them from the attacks of beasts 
of prey. 
Throughout the whole of the plain country to the south 
of the Vaal River the quagga was the sole wild representa- 
tive of the horse family, the true zebra being confined to 
the mountains of Cape Colony and adjacent districts. 
North of the Vaal River the veldt was, however, dotted 
17 
