KLIPSPRINGER SHOOTING. 69 



could not be thrown off, until, after traversing many 

 a mile, one gazed at length upon the open and 

 far-extending Karroo plains. These rude hills had 

 for centuries sheltered the little Bushmen hunters, 

 the aboriginals of this strange land. In the old 

 days, the Bushmen had no doubt wandered far and 

 wide over the broad Karroo deserts, lords of the soil, 

 and of the mighty beasts of the chase, just as they 

 yet wander in the Kalahari and other game- 

 frequented plains of the African interior. In time, 

 however, the Hottentots had expelled the Bushmen, 

 and driven them to the mountains, only to be 

 themselves driven out by the Kaffirs, who, in turn, 

 after many a fierce struggle, yielded to the Boers 

 and to the British. 



Grim and desolate as were these mountains, 

 savage though the prospect around us, never while 

 memory lingers can I efface the recollection of the 

 delightful days spent on that remote mountain farm. 

 Days of an existence, free, vigorous, and untram- 

 melled ; of hunter's toil, arduous, yet full of enjoy- 

 ment, and healthful to an extraordinary degree ; days 

 replete with never-ending charm and change, spent 

 amid a fauna and avi-fauna almost undisturbed, a 

 nature almost as rude and untamed as it had been far 

 back in the long centuries. It was an experience of 

 pleasure altogether unalloyed ; it is, and will be, a 

 memory for ever fragrant. The great kindnesses 

 received at the hands of our host and hostess, went 

 far to heighten the charm of a lengthened and most 

 memorable sojourn. We spent our first day in 

 Naroekas Poort, in inspecting the horse and mule- 

 breeding establishment in a distant kloof, as well as 

 the flocks of Angora and other goats, and a few 



