THE TREK-BOKKE OF THE CAPE COLONY. 217 



and did the country a service. Every farmhouse we came to was simply 

 festooned with drying biltong, the ground around being covered with 

 pegged-out skins. Many Bucks were being conveyed by waggon to the 

 railway, and sent to the large centres : Johannesburg, Cape Town, Kimber- 

 ley, Port Elizabeth, and other towns. On our return journey we passed a 

 waggon laden with two hundred and thirty Bucks going to Kran Kuil 

 Station, and after our arrival at Karree Kloof another passed with eighty 

 more. This was going on over a large extent of country ; we but saw the 

 edges of the trek. Venison of the finest quality in the world was plentiful. 



In the afternoon we gradually left the noise of the hunters behind, and 

 drove to quieter quarters, until at length our wish to see large numbers of 

 the Bucks was gratified. On driving over a low nek of land a vast, undis- 

 turbed, glittering plain lay before us. Our glance at one sweep took iu the 

 expanse of brown country, bounded in the distance by low kopjes, bathed in 

 the wonderful glowing tints of the Karoo ; and throughout its whole extent 

 the exquisite Antelopes grazed peacefully in the warm afternoon winter 

 sunshine. It was as beautiful as it was wondrous. Undisturbed by the 

 hunters, they were not huddled together in separate lots or running in close 

 array, but were distributed in one unbroken mass over the whole expanse 

 — "not herds," as Gordon Cumming said, "but one unbroken mass of 

 Springbucks " — giving quite a whitish tint to the veld, almost as though 

 there had been a very light fall of snow. 



We alighted from the cart, put our rifles aside, and sat down to watch 

 them, and take in a sight we most certainly should never see again. We 

 were three farmers, accustomed to estimate numbers of small stock, and we 

 had an excellent pair of field-glasses. I suggested to my friends that we 

 should endeavour accurately to estimate how many Bucks were before us. 

 With the aid of the field-glasses we deliberately formed a careful estimate, 

 taking them in sections, and checking one another's calculations. We 

 eventually computed the number to be not less than 500,000 — half a 

 million Springbucks in sight at one moment. I have no hesitation in 

 saying that that estimate is not excessive. We were thoroughly accustomed 

 to the vast South African veld and the sights it affords, but we sat in silence 

 and feasted our eyes on this wonderful spectacle. Now, to obtain some 

 rough idea of the prodigious number of Bucks in the whole trek, it must 

 be remembered it was computed that they extended twenty-three hours in 

 one direction, and from two to three in the other — that is, the whole trek 

 occupied a space of country 138 by 15 miles ! Of course they were not 

 equally dense throughout this area ; but when one says they were in 

 millions, it is the literal truth. 



Having watched the scene long enough, we started on our homeward 

 journey, leaving the Bucks undisturbed. We slept that uight at Schilder 



