The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-07-25
THE SOUTH AFRICAN ZEBRA.

 No Handsomer or More Characteristic
 Figure in the Wild Life of the Re
 zion.
 Of all that wonderful array of wild
 animal life with which from time im-
 memorial the African continent has
 been so richly endowed, no form is more beautiful or more interesting than
 the zebra, Like the giraffe the gnu or
 wildebeest, and the hippopotamus, the
 zebra is a form of life quite peculiar to
 the Dark Continent, For thousands of
 years has this handsome creature in
 it's various species secured the plain
 and the mountain, adding everywhere
 and at all times a singular beauty to
 the wild veldt. For thousands of years
 has it fiourished. little checked by the
 occasional assaults and simple weapons
 of the various tribes within it's habitat,
 or even by the ravages of it's incessant
 foe, the lion. Unhappily there are in
 contestable signs that the immemorial
 reign of this striking group of quadru
 peds is approaching close. One form,
 the quagga, has vanished completely:
 another, the true or mountain zebra, Is
 measurably approaching extinction;
 even the most prolific of the group.
 Burchells zebra, is being externlinated
 from southern Africa at an alarming rate. It may be no great waste of
 time, therefore, to consier briefly some
 of the main features of the life history of these striking examples of Afriea's
 disappearing fauna.
 have had the opportunity of observ- ing in their own wild habitats two of the species, the mountain zebra and Burchell's zebra-the zebra of tke plains-and my conclusion Is that no form of animal life was ever more
 adapted to enliven and adorn savage
 landscape. Grazing, at rest, feeting
 over the plains, standing statue-like, sentinel among the most rugged noun tain scenery, or climbing or descending ! at the trot or gallon with equal easa the most rocky and formidable hill- sides I have watched with infinite de- light Burchelps and the true zebra in their own chosen haunts. In their cap- tive state, also, have closely observed these creatures, and I can safely assert that, whether free or captive, the zebra is invariably a picture of grace and
 beauty, a perfect type of feral life.
 The true mountain zebra (Equus zs- bra), the l1ippotigris of the Romans, the daow of the Hottentots, the wilde paard of the Boers, is essentially mountain dweller and loves the widest. toughest and most inaccessible parts tf the rugged mountains of South Africa 1 It is, so far as we know at present, lln- | represented in central Africa, and in f1.in ic h1yn what similar form of Crews zebra From constant persecution this species | is becoming very scarce, and promises not long hence to become, like its much lamented cousin, the quagga, extinct altogether. Tn the old days this hand some and remarkable beast ran plenti- 1 fully in large troops upon every moun- tain range of southern Africa, from l Great Namaqualand to Swaziland l Now, alas! only scanty remnant-a few small troops here and tbere-lingcr | in the Cape Colony, in the ranges of | Sneeuwberg, Witteberg, Ia dtjesberg Zwartberg, the Winterhock md one or two other localities where, as far AS l possible, they are preserved. Few, if any. remain to the mountains of Great Namaqualand, where Sir James Alex
 ander found them fifty years ago .n large numbers. A few stiIl finger in
 the Drakensberg and Lebombo (Swazi 1 land), in the southeastern corner of the
 continent. Most unhappily, preserva-
 tion' in 6 vast and thin1y populated
 country is very difficult; native and Dutch gunners will shoot for skins, or
 the mere love of slaughter; and, despite | y,fI t-l. | Cape, the rare mountain zebra of South Africa year by year dwindles toward extinction. Within twenty years it will