THE TBEK-BOKKE OF THE CAPE COLONY. 215 



Bult, in the district of Prieska, and then resumed their trek in search of 

 better veld. Mr. J. W. Wright, a relative of mine, was then living at 

 Karree Kloof, a farm about ten hours by cart (six miles to the hour) west of 

 the railway in the district of Hope Town. In July, 1896, he wrote that 

 the Trek-bokke were approaching Karree Kloof, and invited me to come 

 and see them. Believing that such a large " trek " might never be seen 

 again, I accepted his invitation. 



Starting by train from Kimberley, I alighted at Kran Kuil, a railway 

 station not far south of the Orange River. Leaving Kran Kuil by post- 

 cart early next morning, and passing the little village of Strydeuburg, with 

 its immense " pan," the home when full of thousands of wild-fowl, after a 

 ten hours' drive in a rickety cart, one of whose wheels was dished the wrong 

 way, and threatened to fall to pieces every moment, I reached Karree 

 Kloof at sundown. Our conversation that evening was of course largely 

 about the Springbucks. Some hundred yards to the back of the house 

 stands a kraal. Ten or fifteen years earlier Mr. Wright saw the Trek- 

 bokke stream through between the house and the kraal. The present trek 

 had approached within about four hours of Karree Kloof, and then turned, 

 and was now some distance farther away. We started in a four-in-hand 

 Cape-cart next day to see the Bucks. Passing through veld where the trek 

 had recently been, and by many a dead Buck, we slept that night at 

 Omdraai's Vley, in the district of Prieska, where two young Englishmen 

 had an accommodation house and a country shop. Over a large fire that 

 evening (it was mid-winter and freezing hard every night) we heard the 

 latest news of the trek. The nearest Bucks were then about two hours 

 farther on. A portion had passed over Omdraai's Vley, taking their way 

 through a wire-fenced Ostrich camp, breaking some of the wires. To 

 clear this camp of those that remained in, about one thousand had to be shot, 

 one of which was an albino. A large number had of course been wounded 

 and many kids, whose mothers had been shot, died. In that camp alone 

 two thousand must have perished. The owners of the shop were buying 

 Springbuck skins at 5d. and 6d. each at the rate of three thousand a week, 

 and had already purchased thousands of pounds of " biltong " (the raw flesh 

 cut into narrow strips and dried), as had also Mr. Wright at Karree Kloof. 

 It was reckoned that, in the district of Prieska alone, some hundreds of 

 thousands of Bucks had been shot, and nearly as many wounded, and the 

 little kids were dying in thousands ; yet there was no appreciable diminu- 

 tion in their numbers. Among other things, we heard thai various- I 

 carmvora were following the trek, a Leopard havii _ been -h I i i. 

 veld, and " Wild Dogs " (Lycaon pictus) having been seen in pursuit ; 

 also that Antelopes, unknown in those parts for many years, had appeared, 

 carried along in the living flood which was pouring over the country. In 



