8 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. 



Botanic Gardens, which by Scotch industry and skill 

 were made on the site of a sandy waste, and exhibits 

 the most unsatisfactory local museum it was ever my 

 lot to enter. A new curator is now engaged, and will 

 probably remedy many of its present defects ; but a com- 

 mencement might be made by eliminating common 

 Indian Lepidoptera, which are unnamed and unlocalized 

 as such, and also by removing some of the brilliant 

 paint of various hues by which it has been sought to 

 ornament a Shark which hangs pendent from the roof. 

 At East London rough weather prevented a comfortable 

 landing, but here an ichthyologist would find much to 

 interest him. Two Hammer-headed Sharks (Zt/ga j na sp.) 

 patrolled the ship, whilst some of the crew threw out 

 lines and caught Sea-Perch, Cape Salmon, and Dog- 

 fish. Both here and at Port Elizabeth sea-bathing is 

 rendered dangerous by the presence of many large 

 Sharks. 



Durban, washed by the Indian Ocean, has a more or 

 less Oriental aspect : gaily-dressed Klings walk the 

 roads and show their old partiality for selling fruit and 

 vegetables ; it is the Hindu race that provide the rail- 

 way porters and the hotel waiters, and a large number 

 of the stores are kept by what are styled " coolie ' 

 merchants. Although it w r as still winter there was a 

 warmth and colour about Durban that made the con- 

 trast to the Cape very pleasant and very tropical ; but 

 as Natal forms the subject of another chapter little need 

 be said here, and our stay was very short. We landed 

 at noon and left by the evening train for the Transvaal 

 via Newcastle. 



The railway passes through some of the finest scenery 

 of Natal ; but this part of the journey was completed 

 during the night, and when daylight broke we were 

 near Ladysmith, and mountain, ravine, and rivers were 

 giving place to those bare and generally treeless tracts 

 that are so universally known in South Africa as veld. 

 From Ladysmith to Newcastle the rail ascends some 

 steep inclines, which eventually lead to the high 

 plateau on which Johannesburg and Pretoria stand, thus 



