CHAPTER VII 



THE VISION OF THE PROPHET 



" I will make the wilderness a pool of water. ... I will 

 set in the desert the fir-tree and the pine." 



In the forty-first chapter of Isaiah we read the 

 vision of the Prophet in those matchless lines 

 which appear at the head of this chapter, and 

 no one who has gazed on the crystal " Eye " 

 of Kuruman, or has drunk deep from the 

 translucent wells of Rietfontein, can for a 

 moment doubt that we are about to witness the 

 fulfilment of an ancient prophecy. In this final 

 paper I propose to set down a few facts and 

 figures gleaned during my recent journey, and 

 thereafter shall leave the reader to form his own 

 opinion of the agricultural potentialities and 

 prospects of the Southern Kalahari and the 

 district of Gordonia. 



The agricultural history of Gordonia may be 

 said to date from the building of the Upington 

 Irrigation Furrow by a Dutch missionary, the 

 Rev. Mr Schroder, with the aid of the Bastards. 

 It was twenty-two miles long, and in lieu of 



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