A KARROO FARM. 261 



Our host has ended all this ; strychnine placed 

 in meat or dead carcasses, and set about on bushes 

 or low trees, has done its deadly work ; and on this 

 side of Witteberg the " tigers," as they are invariably 

 called at the Cape, now cease from troubling. 

 Farther over on the other side, in Naroekas Poort 

 and other parts of the mountain interior, however, 

 they are still plentiful, and cause much damage. 

 At Naroekas Poort, our mountain abiding-place, 

 only two years before our arrival, the leopards had 

 killed no less than fourteen foals in one season. 



During the afternoon we inspect some eighty 

 or ninety horses of all sorts, shapes, and colours, 

 as well as a good number of oxen, and find them all 

 pretty fit and flourishing. The Cape horse is, as a 

 rule, a trifle undersized ; is somewhat lacking in 

 bone below the knee and hock, and too often has 

 drooping quarters ; yet, with these failings, I have 

 found him (and most people who have tested the 

 matter will agree with me) the hardiest and most 

 willing servant in the world. No day is too long, 

 no country too severe for him; and, in the matter 

 of food, the Cape horse is as accommodating as 

 such a-rough-and-ready Colony often requires him 

 to be. 



As hunting nags, when properly trained, they are 

 the most sensible and sporting animals imaginable, 

 and enter with extraordinary zest into the spirit 

 of the chase ; standing like rocks when dismounted, 

 and galloping like the wind carefully avoiding 

 holes, with the cleverness of cats when engaged 

 in cutting off the flying herds of antelopes. Very 

 many of the Cape horses have spotted or snowy 

 quarters ; I am not certain why this should be, but 



