CHAPTER VIII. 



ORANGE FREE STATE. 



As a field wherein to give vent to the special 

 aspirations of the globe-trotting sportsman, this 

 little Republic holds out few attractions. Its vast 

 bare and shelterless prairies are denuded of the 

 countless herds of game life by which they were 

 formerly tenanted, and the whole territory is now 

 dotted with the rather widely detached homesteads 

 of stock farmers, the majority of whom are, of 

 course, Boers, although not a few of them are of 

 English descent. A few villages, mostly inhabited 

 by general storekeepers, represent the urban 

 element Bloemfontein, the seat of Government, 

 is a thriving little place, and is adorned with public 

 buildings of dimensions seemingly exuberant for 

 its requirements, but very creditable, nevertheless, 

 to the aspirations of such a Liliputian Republic. 



K 



