138 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. 



they were obtained. Katir robberies at the diamond- 

 mines in time approached such large dimensions, that 

 repressive penal acts were passed and enforced against 

 these indiscnminatwe purchases. Consequently now on 

 Cape Town breakwater may be seen convicts who 

 arrived in the country too late for illicit diamond buying 

 to be considered as one of the arts of a clever speculator. 

 In a few years, even if it is not now the case, it will be 

 considered bad taste to introduce the topic of amateur 

 diamond purchases in some large, wealthy, and highly 

 respectable South- African establishments. The " illicit 

 diamond-buyer " is to-day the " company promoter," 

 and public opinion, as soon as the law awakes, will 

 equally approve of some professors of " flotation ' 

 joining their diamond-buying predecessors in undignified 

 seclusion. 



Our own countrymen form no inconsiderable portion 

 of the Transvaal population ; but the descendants of 

 many will be of South-African birth, for there is an old 

 and true proverb, "he who has once lived in South 

 Africa will return to it again." When once the 

 Transvaal is crossed by railways, the British farmer who 

 is willing to permanently leave his old country and 

 settle in what ought to be one of the finest farming 

 regions of the world, will find a laud worthy of his 

 adoption. To the present time the resources of the 

 Transvaal have only been sought beneath its surface, 

 which remains practically uutilled and untouched. 

 The Boer farmer is simply a possessor of flocks and 

 herds, and will probably remain so ; the only hope of 

 his being aroused from this deadly apathy, which 

 keeps back the hands which register development on 

 the clock of his country, is to encourage other farmers 

 to settle in his midst, and show him what may be made 

 of this wilderness. But the farmer must wait for the 

 railway, and the railway will largely depend on the 

 produce of the farmer. Johannesburg to-day is the 

 most English town in the Transvaal; Pietersburg the 

 most German ; Pretoria the most cosmopolitan. One 

 of the strangest features amongst the English is to find 



