The Conquest of the Desert 



by Cape cart in two days, or by donkey waggon 

 in one week. You pass glittering mountains, 

 to the bare and burning plains, and struggle 

 through parched sands to follow the telegraph 

 pole. At Kenhart we crossed the Hartebeest 

 River, whose towering camel-trees and bright 

 sand-dunes form a veritable pillar of cloud by 

 day and fire by night to guide the weary traveller 

 over seventy miles of wilderness to the banks of 

 the mighty Orange. 



It was toward evening, after four hot hours 

 in a motor car, that we rose in huge sand- 

 circles over the ultimate range and gazed in the 

 soft glow of sunset on the green and fertile 

 valley of Kakamas one hundred and four score 

 miles from Prieska. 



At Kakamas the Orange is a majestic river, 

 flowing swiftly between green islands. The 

 Great Falls, to which we still were journeying, 

 are situated twenty-four miles farther down the 

 stream. For half of the way you are still in the 

 settlement, 1 and constantly pass the white tents 

 and trim cottages of the colonists. A few miles 

 farther on we crossed the red sand of the 

 Hartebeest River, and came to the pretty village 



1 The Kakamas Labour Colony for " Poor Whites," 

 established by the Dutch Reformed Church (see Chapter 

 IX., page 83). 



170 



