128 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. 



speed without a single sign of hesitation on the part of 

 the boy who held the reins. 



As the train sped along, and for thirty miles before 

 we reached Newcastle, we constantly disturbed small 

 flocks of the South- African Kestrel (Cerchneisrupicold). 

 These birds were usually found two or three together 

 and often on the ant-hills which bordered the line, 

 taking flight as the train approached ; but I saw very 

 few birds during this journey, and a fine pair of Paauw 

 ( Otis Aw/), walking on the open veld near the Ingogo 

 heights, were the most interesting of our ornithological 

 observations. 



At Newcastle I once more joined the coach for Yolks- 

 rust, the first stage in Transvaal territory, and found 

 as a travelling companion an Englishman who had been 

 through the Boer war, and one of whose duties was now 

 to see that the graves on the summit of Majuba were 

 properly preserved. Again I listened to a truthful 

 account by an eye-witness of the disaster for I had 

 previously travelled with the war-correspondent of a 

 London daily paper, and also of a carrier of despatches 

 during the war, and again was the problem intensified 

 as to the cause of all our disasters. He told me he had 

 guided many travelling British officers up the mountain 

 since the war and they always returned dispirited and 

 perplexed. The disaster of Majuba has yet received 

 no rational explanation, and it is said of General 

 Joubert, that when the subject is mentioned he usually 

 raises his hat and says the God of Battles fought for 

 the Boers on that day. I have been on the spot three 

 times, I have conversed on the subject with three eye- 

 witnesses, I have heard a score of different theories about 

 the fight from men of different nationalities whom I 

 have met in the Transvaal, and I confess I do not 

 understand it, and thought I knew more about it before 

 I left England. 



Twelve days' heavy and continuous rain is sufficient 

 to incommode the inner communications of any country ; 

 but in a land like the Transvaal, where the rivers have 

 few or no bridges and the roads are self-worn by 



