130 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. 



ourselves and baggage to a heavy wagonette that was 

 waiting for us on the other side, and then travelled in 

 the dark for there was no moon till about 10 P.M., 

 when a stage was reached where we could sleep for 

 the night. Most, if not all, these sleeping and feeding 

 stages are kept by men who combine the trade of store- 

 and canteen-keeper with that of "hotel proprietor." 

 These stores are small shops, which, however, contain 

 everything that the Boer customers (for the farmers ride 

 long distances to these depots) require, from grocery to 

 saddlery, including cheesemongery, drapery, bread and 

 spirits, boots and crockery, ironmongery and tobacco, in 

 fact all the requirements of a somewhat rude existence 

 may be purchased at these unpretending shanties. 

 Strange to say, the prices do not appear to be very high, 

 'and taking into consideration that all the stock is 

 bought at second-hand, with a heavy transport added, the 

 profits must be only moderate. However, these 

 merchants are frugal, and their household expenses 

 are necessarily light, so a moderate profit with a small 

 turnover is yet something that produces a balance at 

 the end of the year ; but the life must be dreary and 

 monotonous, the arrival of the coach the only communi- 

 cation with the outside world, and a few Boer customers 

 the only other visitants, to break the ever present silence 

 of the vast surrounding veld. Before daybreak we had 

 again driven on, crossed the next river on a small raft 



~ 7 



floated by casks a driver of another coach was drowned 

 here later in the same day and eventually reached 

 Johannesburg at 9 P.M., instead of 1 P.M. the proper 

 time. As we drove through the streets the canteens 

 seemed to be the only places open, and I was told 

 that at the time of the boom there were 280 of these 

 establishments in the town ; now the trade has de- 

 creased, there is little money for a carouse, and bad 

 spirits are more difficult to sell. 



The details of this return journey will give some 

 conception of how the development of the Transvaal is 

 retarded by the want of railway communication with 

 Natal and the sea. This is the road to be pursued and 



