THE BONTEBOK AND BLESBOK 
and rejoicing in the same whimsical and fine venerable old-goatish expres- 
sion of countenance.” Good specimens of males and females of both 
species may be examined side by side in one case in the Mammalia Gallery 
of the British Museum of Natural History at South Kensington, where the 
points of resemblance and the differences between the two species can 
at once be seen. On the average, I think, the bontebok is a little larger 
and heavier than the blesbok. The male specimen of the former now in 
the collection at the British Museum, a fine, full-grown animal in good 
condition, weighed exactly two hundred pounds as it lay, whilst the male 
specimen of the latter — also a fine animal of its kind — weighed one hundred 
and eighty pounds as it lay, and one hundred and thirty -five pounds clean. 
Two other male bonteboks — also, apparently, full-grown animals — shot 
at the same time as the above-mentioned specimen, weighed respectively 
one hundred and sixty-six pounds and one hundred and sixty pounds as 
they fell. From these data it would seem, therefore, that although heavy 
blesboks may weigh more than average-sized bonteboks, the finest 
specimens of the latter species will outweigh the heaviest blesboks. In 
both species the horns attain, on the average, to a length of fifteen or 
sixteen inches in the males, whilst in the females the horns are somewhat 
shorter, and much lighter. Had it not been for the protection which has 
long been afforded it by the Cape Government, there can be little doubt 
that the bontebok, owing to the very small area of its range, would 
long since have disappeared from the face of the earth. Even in spite 
of stringent laws, this dire calamity might have happened had it not 
been for the action of Mr Alexander Van der Byl, who, in 1864, whilst 
enclosing the extensive area known as Nachtwacht Farm, near Bredasdorp, 
managed to drive something like three hundred bonteboks within the 
enclosed space. There they have been carefully preserved and protected 
ever since, and though they have not increased in number, it is said that 
they are not decreasing. Another herd of bonteboks is preserved on a neigh- 
bouring farm belonging to Dr Albertyn, whose nephew has now become 
the owner of Nachtwacht. In addition to these bonteboks now carefully 
preserved on enclosed farms, there are also still a few surviving on the 
unenclosed plains, both in the neighbourhood of Bredasdorp and near the 
village of Swellendam. It is doubtful, however, I think, whether more than 
three hundred bonteboks are in existence to-day. The calves are dropped 
in September and October, and, as with all other African antelopes, gain 
strength so rapidly that when only a few days old they are so fleet that 
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