The Vision of the Prophet 



after year. So, too, with the trader trekking 

 across the Kalahari. But the destruction 

 wrought by the trek Boer and the trader is 

 nothing when compared with the constant 

 migration of these vandals of the desert, the 

 Bastards and the bushmen, who scour the 

 country for timber for their fires, their huts and 

 their weapons. Soon there is nothing to attract 

 the moisture-bearing clouds, no humus to hold 

 the rushing rain when it comes, only an iron- 

 shedding surface or the parched and thirsty 

 sand. Between Zwart Modder and Upington, a 

 distance of sixty miles, there are not more than 

 a dozen planted trees. The first move in the 

 conquest of the desert must be afforestation." 



" Do sand-dunes grow ? " 



" Yes ; even in a month's time we often notice 

 that a dune has grown a good deal higher — more 

 especially if there has been little or no traffic. 

 Just a mile down the river from the store you 

 may have noticed that a scarlet dune has 

 thrown an arm across the white alkaline bed of 

 the Molopo, making a very pretty picture. The 

 cure for the encroachment of sand-dunes is 

 population, building, tree-planting, traffic — 

 anything, in fact, pertaining to civilisation. As 

 you will have observed, the sand-dunes run east 

 e 65 



