African Skins

Betweeu 1850 and 1875 it is certain that some millions of blesbok, wildebeest and spriugbok rrrast have beeñ destroyed in the Transvaal and Orange Pree State. The slaughter was so prodigious and the variety ot wild animáis so great in these wild regions of Sonth Africu that the result made a sensible difference in the leather industry of Europe. The markets were filled with skins which, when tanned, gave leather of a qualityand excellence neverknown before, but the origin of which, as the materiarwas still sold under oíd ñames, purchasers never suspected. Hides of the zebra and qnagga arrived in tens of thousands, and good as horsehide is for the uppers of first class boots, thes were even better. Smart Englishmen for years wore boots the uppers of which were made of zebra aud quagga skin or from the hides of elands, onyx and gemsbokdisguised under the names