320 MODIFICATIOX Of SDl'TIf AFRICAN KAIXFALL. 



over the line from Swellendani to Mossel Bav can imagine trees 

 of a size to call for comment existing in the dry and hare gulleys 

 one sees. 



Again, in continuing his journey northwards from (iraaff-. 

 Reinet, Lichtenstein mentions the " Snow Mountains." and the 

 perennial nature of the streams, which he ascribes to the pre- 

 sence of low marshy hollows filled with aromatic plants. 



Dr. J. C. Brown, writing in 1884, states: 



Dr. Moffat tells of the arid region of liis missionary labours, that 

 in his settlement at Latakoo, the natives were wont to tell of the floods 

 of ancient times, the incessant showers which clothed the very rocks with 

 verdure, and the giant trees and forests which once studded the brows 

 of the Hamhana Hills and neighbouring plains. They boasted of the 

 Kuruman and other rivers, with their impassable torrents, in which 

 hippopotamus played, while lowing herds walked to their necks in grass, 

 filling their inakiikiis with milk, making every heart to sing for joy. 

 Now all that is a thing of the past. I have visited a farm where it may 

 be said they had had no rain for three years. 



The above description which the natixes gave Dr. Moffat 

 of the country near Kimberley offers a startling contrast with 

 the country as it appears to-day. 



Much more of this .sort of evidence might be ([uoted, but 

 T think I have given enough to serve its purpose. If, then, we 

 briefly sum up this evidence, we find: 



That the ])resent high forest belt which practically ends at 

 George was a lumdred years ago continuous to Cape Town, and 

 certainly a certain distance up the West Coast. 



That the great inland basin, the present Karn^o, W'as, luore 

 or less, a true grassveld with ])erennial rivers, in which hippo- 

 potomi, etc., lived. 



From these facts we conclude: 



That the rainfall througliout ."^otub Africa has decreased 

 in the last hundred years. 



That the character of the rainfall has entirely changed from 

 soft soaking rains to torrential thunderstorius. 



Now, before going any further. I would l)riert\- mention a 

 })oint which was raised in the Press some two years ago, and I 

 think, from the nuiuber of letters which were written on it, 

 aroused a good deal of interest. This is tlu- (juestion of whether 

 or not there has been much actual decrease in the quantity of 

 rain precipitated. One correspondent, writing to the Agricul- 

 tural Journal in August, 1914. gaves the figures of the average 

 rainfalls for the ])ast (^o years as rec( M-dcd at the Royal Obser- 

 vatory, Cai)e 'i'own, and showed that the rainfall for the ten 

 years 1891-1900 was ])ractically the same as that for the ten 

 years 1851-1860. There is a saying that figure>< can be inade to 

 ])rove an\'thing, and certainly 1 think the figures (|uoted l)y the 

 corresi)on(k'nt in (|ucstion arc extn-melx' misleading, I'irstly, 

 because Cape 'i'own, with its uni(|ue geograi)hical position, has 

 suffered ])robably less in tin- actual decrease of rainfall than 

 anv inland jxirtion of South Atrica; .ind sccoiullv, and this is 



