20 SOUTH AFRICA. 



reached a Boer farm, where we got some forage 

 for the nags, and some hot milk and rusks for 

 breakfast. 



After this the country became more open, and 

 at distant intervals we found farm shanties, or 

 Boer camps, and although ostriches and spring- 

 bucks were plentiful on all sides, we heard no more 

 lions ; soon I learned to despise the cowardly 

 hyaenas which howled round our sleeping quarters, 

 for I preferred the ground to those offered by the 

 kindly but not very cleanly Boers. 



Having passed a few days in Graaff Reinet, I 

 crossed the great Sneeberg range to look at a 

 farm, which I shortly bought for 2,000, and 

 stocked with 4,000 sheep, 150 head of horned 

 cattle, and sixty horses of sorts. The farm 

 consisted of about 30,000 acres of mountain and 

 plain, with about two and a half acres of arable 

 land near the house this, rough but comfortable 

 enough. There was water sufficient for the stock, 

 but none available for the indispensable irrigation 

 of more arable land than the patch mentioned. 



Here I vegetated for two years ; then sold the 

 place and stock at a good profit, and shortly cleared 

 out for the interior. 



