THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 97 



In the interests of the Cape Colony nothing 

 can be plainer than that a thorough experiment of 

 the practicability of obtaining water in this fertile 

 Thirst Land should be speedily made, as it is well 

 known that the old Colonial pastures are over- 

 stocked, and that the herbage generally is 

 deteriorating in quality, as well as in sufficiency. 

 As the country must eventually rely on wool and 

 other pastoral products for revenue, the capture 

 of additional pasture lands of first-rate quality, 

 and nearly as large as France in extent, is a matter 

 of paramount importance, more especially as those 

 lands lie close to the Colonial boundary, and are 

 approachable without danger to health or losses 

 from tsetse-fly, or indeed any hindrance to easy 

 locomotion and transport. 



For my own part, I am under the impression 

 that the sand-dune district should first be tested 

 for water, which there would probably be found 

 plentifully by boring through the limestone floor, 

 which, though hard, is evidently not very thick. 

 It is a curious fact that in these sand-dune 

 districts the grasses are always green at the 

 bottom, even when owing to droughts those on 

 the hard plains are quite parched, thus presumably 



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