76 
but for the fostering care of Messrs. Breda and Van der Byl, would be quite 
so in a couple of years. 
“They are now confined to one spot in the extreme south of the con- 
tinent of South Africa, to a portion of the country called the ‘Strand Veldt.’ 
It is an extensive flat, bordered by the sea on the south-west, south, and 
south-east, and by a range of undulating country or low hills rising to the 
Caledon Ranges and Zwart Bergen on the northern side. It is, in fact, the . 
nearest plateau to the L’Agulhas Bank, and is called ‘Cape L’Agulhas.’ 
The whole of this country belongs chiefly to the families of Breda and Van 
der Byl; and they preserve the animals as much as they can. A Government 
permit is also required to shoot them, which must be visa’d by the magistrate 
at Bredasdorp, the name of the village on this range of land. 
‘They are, however, poached and destroyed by one or two small holders, 
who have patches of land surrounded by the large properties, and who 
refuse all offers of purchase, and plant corn on purpose to tempt the animals 
into it, and then at night shoot them. They roam in herds of about eight 
or ten, or twenty; but sometimes fine old bucks are found solitary. They 
are usually shot from a cart, which they will suffer to approach them, or 
from horseback. If wounded and approached they will charge desperately ; 
and I have heard of a Hottentot being killed by them thus.” 
Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington in their ‘Sportsman in South Africa,’ 
which contains the most recent account of the Antelopes of the Colony, 
tell us that the Bontebok can no longer “be considered asa part of the 
wild game of the country,” as it now exists only on Van der Byl’s farm (as 
mentioned by Mr. Layard) and has become totally extinct elsewhere. 
Mr. H. A. Bryden, a well-known authority upon the game of the Cape, 
tells us the same story. One of the last resorts of this Antelope was the 
Bontebok Flats, to the north of the present Queenstown district, where a 
few of these Antelopes existed up to 1851. It appears certain, however, 
that except in the farm above mentioned, where a few have been carefully 
preserved for many years, the Bontebok is, at the present time, an extinct 
animal. 
The Bontebok was amongst the many splendid Antelopes that were to be 
seen in the celebrated Knowsley Menagerie, and which bred in that 
establishment. The young is figured in one of Waterhouse Hawkins’s 
large plates in the ‘Gleanings,’ and the adult pair in another plate along 
with the Blessbok. 
