Whatever may be said or thought of some of Mr. Schreiner's actions, it
is held, and justly held, by level-headed people of both parties at the
Cape, that the continuance in office of the Dutch ministry has
contributed more than anything else to preserve the colony from the
peril of an internal rebellion. For this we cannot be too thankful!
Signs of animal life in the Karroo are few and far between. There are
scarcely any flowers to attract butterflies, and I never saw more than
four or five species of birds. There was one handsome bird, however, as
big as a crow, with black and white plumage--probably the small bustard
(_Eupodotis afroides_)--which occasionally rose from among the scrub and
after a brief flight sank vertically to the ground in a curious
fashion. Sometimes too, at nightfall, a large bird would fly with a
strong harsh note across the stony veldt to the kopjes in the distance.
Of the larger fauna I saw only the springbok. A small herd of these
graceful little creatures were one evening running about the veldt
within 500 yards of the train. On another occasion too, very early in
the morning, one of our two Red Cross nurses was startled by the sudden
appearance of a large baboon which crept down a gully near
Matjesfontein--the only one we ever saw.
Between Matjesfontein and the great camp of De Aar there is little to
interest or amuse the traveller.
Pages:
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33