THE TRANSVAAL. l8l 



He would fail to realise the fact that this herbage 

 is coarse, sour, and unacceptable to domestic cattle 

 except for the few weeks in the year when the 

 young grass springs up on patches which have been 

 burnt off during the winter. Then bleak weather, 

 with violent gales, oblige the Boers to take, or 

 send, their cattle into the sheltered belts of low 

 bush veldt by which this immense plateau is sur- 

 rounded at a lower level, and where the grass, if 

 not very nutritious or plentiful, is at any rate not 

 unacceptable to cattle. 



Under these adverse circumstances the Transvaal 

 Boer contrived to exist while the myriads of 

 ruminating game, such as elands, blesbucks, and 

 other antelopes blackened the plains and not only 

 provided him with meat but with hides which he 

 could readily barter away for the few groceries 

 and clothes he required, without diminishing his 

 scanty arid gradually decreasing herd of cattle by 

 killing or selling out of it The squalor in the 

 midst of which the generality of the Transvaal 

 Boers were quite content to exist during what 

 may be termed the " Game period " was something 

 which can hardly be imagined by Europeans 

 even if perchance they have visited the very worst 



