CHAPTER XIV. 

 A KARROO FARM. 



THE morning star of Africa has some time 

 since sprung like a rocket above the 

 horizon ; it is now approaching six o'clock, 

 and after the usual early coffee, we are up and out 

 of doors. Already the sun, although not long risen 

 above the plains, is shining with a brilliancy known 

 only in the marvellously translucent atmosphere of 

 Southern Africa. The bold range of Witteberg, here 

 forming the extreme south-eastern barrier of the 

 Great Karroo, springs from its bed of mighty plain 

 in everlasting, ever-imposing grandeur. The rosy 

 flush, cast by the rising orb upon the brown and 

 rugged bosom of the mountain, has not yet departed, 

 and we stand for a few minutes watching the glorious 

 tints gradually fade, leaving the mass of mountain, 

 clad in its soberer, but little less beautiful garb of 

 browns and purples. The place we are staying at 

 is so good an example of a large pastoral farm in 

 Cape Colony, that I may be pardoned for giving 

 some particulars concerning it. Riet Fontein (reed 

 fountain) , then, lies to the extreme south of Camdeboo, 

 an old Hottentot region, at the south-eastern 

 angle of the Great Karroo, and to the south-west 

 of Zwart Ruggens, another district, partly karroo, 

 partly mountain. It is pitched upon the open 

 plains at three or four miles distance from the 

 Witteberg range, which, by the way, in this clear 



