THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
was a single black wildebeest left alive in any part of the Transvaal at the 
end of the year 1885. By that date the species would no doubt have already 
become absolutely extinct had it not been for the public spirit of two Boer 
farmers of the Orange Free State — Messrs Du Plessis and Terblanc — who 
carefully protected the poor remnants of the once great herds of black 
wildebeests which were still running on their farms. When, early in 1895, 
I visited Mr Du Plessis’ farm — or, rather, vast cattle run, for it extended 
to over 50,000 acres — I was told that there were about three hundred 
wildebeests on the farm, and I do not think that this was an exaggerated 
estimate. At the same time there were quite as many on Mr Terblanc’s 
ground near Kronstadt, and it was from these herds in the Orange Free 
State that the animals came which were introduced into Mr Cecil Rhodes’ 
Zoological Park, and into Mr C. D. Rudd’s smaller grounds near Cape 
Town. Mr F. E. Blaauw, the Dutch ornithologist, has also introduced 
some black wildebeests into Holland, where they have thriven exceedingly 
well on his estate near Amsterdam. 
During the Boer War the black wildebeests which had for so many years 
been carefully preserved by the afore -mentioned Boer farmers were 
scattered in every direction, and a great many of them were killed; but 
after the declaration of peace the survivors seem to have found their way 
back to their original feeding -grounds, and when Mr W. L. Sclater (the 
then Curator of the South African Museum at Cape Town) visited the 
Orange River Colony some few years later, he found that black wildebeests 
were again on the increase. It is, therefore, to be hoped that this most 
curious and interesting animal — whose range never extended beyond the 
open country of the territories lying south of the Limpopo River — may, 
if it can never again become numerous in its old haunts, at least be 
saved for all time from complete extermination. 
The black wildebeest or white -tailed gnu is a most remarkable -looking 
animal. The bulls, which stand nearly four feet at the shoulder, are of a 
very dark brown colour on the body, and quite black on the face. The 
horns, which are of a buffalo -like character, almost meet on the forehead 
in broad rounded bosses. From the centre of the head they sweep outwards 
and downwards, crooking sharply upwards again on each side of the face, 
the centre of which, above the great flat muzzle, is adorned with a growth 
of long black bristly hair, which, combined with the fierce -looking eyes, 
gives this animal a most truculent appearance. The neck is arched and 
maned, and the long bushy white tail very like that of a horse. In the cow 
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