ftoualegn George Gordon Camming 269 



accomplished, we held for the small periodical stream 

 beside which the wandering Boers were encamped, that 

 being in my line of march for Beer Vlcy. Vast and sur- 

 prising as was the herd of springboks which I had that 

 morning witnessed, it was infinitely surpassed by v. 

 I beheld on the march from my vley to old Sweir's 

 camp ; for on our clearing the low range of hills through 

 which the springboks had been pouring, I beheld the 

 boundless plains, and even the hill sides which stretched 

 away on every side of me, thickly covered, not with 

 ' herds,' but with ' one vast herd ' of springboks ; far as 

 the eye could strain the landscape was alive with them, 

 until they softened down into a dim red mass of living 

 creatures." 



These vast herds of antelopes, hundreds of thousands 

 of them, quickly consumed every green herb and passed 

 on, leaving a desert behind them and compelling the un- 

 fortunate Boer farmers to trek with all their belongings 

 to fresh pasture-lands. They were nearly, if not quite, 

 as bad as the locusts another terrible plague to the 

 South African farmer which Gordon Gumming graphically 

 describes. 



Still pursuing his way towards the unknown land 

 where the biggest game was to be found, the hunter 

 fell in with Dr. Moffat, the afterwards celebrated Scotch 

 missionary, whose, " noble, athletic frame," and face " on 

 which forbearance and Christian charity were very 

 plainly written," impressed him greatly. The Doctor 

 he describes as " minister, gardener, blacksmith, gun- 

 smith, mason, carpenter, glazier," and after partaking 

 of his hospitality, Gumming set off in the direction 



