20 president's address. 



shallow brak water. With the very important exception of the 

 many wells and protected water holes since made in that area, 

 the facilities for obtaining water then were evidently no greater 

 than to-day. '- 



Of the state of the Karroo in the eighteenth century we have 

 accounts by Le Vaillant, Sparrman, Paterson. Thunberg and 

 Barrow, though they visited the country late in the century.'^ 

 Their descriptions would apply closely to what one finds to-day, 

 if one makes allowance for the settlement of the country and the 

 consequent opening of springs and wells, which enable the traveller 

 to go practically where he likes at all times of the \^ear; and 

 another conspicuous effect on some of the rivers is due to erosion 

 caused by overstocking and the destruction of reed beds. Beer 

 Vley, which Barrow found to be "a delightful spot in the midst 

 of a barren desert, affording shelter, food and water " at the end 

 of Jul}-, 1797,'* when revisited on his return journey from Graaff 

 Eeinet in December, Barrow expecting, on account of the heavy 

 rain which had just fallen, to find plenty of water " at least as 

 far as De Beer's Vley, the delightful meadow in the Desert," 

 provided scarcely enough water for his horses and none for his 

 cattle."^ He wrote: " The great scarcity of water on those plains 

 of Africa known by the name of Karroo, rendering it sometimes 

 hazardous, and almost always harassing, for the cattle to pass, 

 should seem to point out the camel or the dromedary as the kind 

 of animal best suited for the transport of goods and passengers in 

 the Colony of the Cape." In reading these accounts of the 

 difficulties experienced by travellers in the Karroo 100 years or 

 more ago one is struck by the veiy hard things said about it, but 

 the problem of transport in the Karroo has long since been solved 

 by the replacement of oxen by donkeys, and of course by the 

 gradual settlement of the country, the improvement of roads, the 

 digging of wells, and the opening of small fountains and boreholes. 



Lichtenstein and Burchell travelled early in the nineteenth 

 century and wrote very clear accounts of the Karroo.'® 



Comparing my own experience of the Karroo, from the Fish 

 Eiver Valley to Calvinia, with the narratives of travellers written 

 more than 50 years ago, my conclusion is that no deterioration 

 of climate nor marked loss of water has taken place. Had the 

 countr^^ become drier than it was in the descriptions of Burchell 

 and others, the numerous farms we find in it could not have been 

 estabhshed; but allowance must be made for the impression 

 conveyed to travellers who were probably unused to dry regions, 

 and for the obvious fact that the better-watered district of 

 Sneeuwberg and Graaff Eeinet would be settled earlier than the 

 Ghoup, so the opinions of the early travellers no doubt exagger- 

 ated the difficulties of the country. 



Of the Transvaal and Orange Free State there seem to be 

 fewer early narratives by travellers than of the Cape. The general 

 impression is that water is less abundant now than thirty or 

 eighty years ago, but the narratives of Gordon Cumming and 



