DROUGHT IN WATERBERG, SOUTH AFRICA—MARAIS. 5138 
Every farmhouse had a water mill, and a spirit-still smoking night 
and day. It was the last great stronghold of big game in the northern 
Transvaal. It will be remembered that it was to Schimmel-perd-se- 
pan that Markapan invited Commandant Potgieter for elephant 
shooting when he had planned the murder. It is perhaps true that 
man had here also to procure his bread in the sweat of his brow. He 
had to work in order to live, but his work was so uncommonly like 
play that not without reason was the district named ‘‘ Lui-lekker- 
land.” A salted horse and a good rifle were the prime necessaries of 
life, and many a fine farm was swapped for one of these. 
That was the picture then. And now? Tantaene animis celestibus 
irae? 
Last season was a culmination of several drought years. It was 
the worst drought ever experienced in this district since its settlement 
by whites, and this statement is made on surer evidence than the 
unassisted recollection of the “oldest”? inhabitant. One can not be 
too doubtful of such evidence. By an eclectic acceptance of such 
statements one can find foundation for almost any sort of theory. 
Even one’s own recollection must be consulted with considerable 
reserve. No one who has grown up in this country but seems to 
remember a Transvaal of broad deep rivers, of mighty rains, of 
beautiful springs, spruits, and waterfalls. Valuing this no more than 
one would hearsay evidence in law, there is in Waterberg a mass of 
confirmatory evidence which places the above statement beyond 
doubt. Take only one fact: Last season a large number of orange 
groves perished from drought of which the trees were over 50 years old, 
And in addition to the facts such as these, a little study of drought 
conditions and the diminution of existing waters soon enables one to 
follow the ancient spoor of once living streams, and even to assign 
an approximate date of their final disappearance. With such col- 
lateral evidence human memory can, tant mieux, be valued correctly. 
The assertion, therefore, may be safely accepted that last year was 
the worst drought year experienced in this district since the advent 
of the voortrekkers. Over the greater portion of the district the 
first rains did not fall before the middle of November, and over about 
half of the northern middle veld no rain fell at all, that is to say 
not sufficient rain to cause the veld seeds to germinate and the plants 
to grow. ‘This season has, in certain respects, been even more dis- 
astrous. In the early part of the season there were good but purely 
local showers. The grass and shrubs in these favored localities started 
fairly well, and then when rain was most needed for crops and veld 
alike it ceased altogether. This refers to the plateaus and mountains. 
In the north, with the exception of one or two localities, no rain has 
fallen this year, and again it is the end of November. 
73176°—sM 1914——33 
