CHAPTER V 



WHERE TWO EMPIRES MEET 



Days from a Diary (continued) 



It is curious to find that German money is the 

 commoner currency in this part of the Union. 

 Mealies (maize) are 30s. a bag. Witkop is 

 twelve hours from Rietfontein, and twenty 

 hours from Upington. Paauw ■ here. I noted a 

 large amount of excellent agricultural land. 

 We left at 3 p.m. and raced along a good hard 

 road. Then into a sand-dune snow-white with 

 shells ! a Where have they come from ? The 

 German Palaeontologist will tell you that the 

 same species is to be found in North Africa 

 in the bed of the mighty Nile. His English 

 colleague, the Anthropologist, will follow the 

 spoor of the Kalahari Bushman to the cave of 

 Altamira in Northern Spain. Bushmen and 

 shells, both early emigrants from Southern 

 Europe — crossing the Mediterranean, the one at 

 Cadiz and the other at Cairo — preaching the 

 gospel of Closer Settlement in the primitive 

 days of the Great Thirst Land. Towards 



1 Dutch for peacock — species of bustard. 

 * Dr Van Hoepen, Government Palaeontologist, Pretoria, 

 writes: "The small shells you brought me belong to the 

 sub-genus Corbicula and the large shells to Unio." 



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