Hunting in the Sneeuberg, 1856
In mid-July 1856, Robert Bain of Quagga’s Valley (one of William Southey’s farms), and George Murray of Naudesberg (in the Sneeuberg north of Graaff-Reinet), with his youngest brother Walter, rode over the mountains to the extensive flats around Cephanjes Poort, Kolhoek and Zaayfontein, to hunt mainly wildebeest and springbok. According to The Graaff-Reinet Herald of July…
Read MoreAnd Now There Are Bones
The early travellers reported vast herds in the Karoo. They wrote of steenbuck, bushbuck, reedbuck, oribi, hartebeest, kudu, buffalo, lion, wildebeest, springbuck, ostrich, hippo and rhino, said Schwarz in The Kalahari or Thirstland Redemption. He dated the drying of the Karoo to the disappearance of the Kalahari lakes in 1820. He said the configuration of…
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