The Conquest of the Desert 



been at Kolobeng and the thermometer some- 

 times rose to ninety-six degrees in the coolest 

 part of our house yet the atmosphere never 

 had that steamy feeling and those debilitating 

 effects which prevail in India and on the coast 

 of Africa itself. Nothing can exceed the balmi- 

 ness of the evenings and mornings throughout 

 the year. You wish for an increase neither of 

 cold nor heat." 



Take up an old map of the Springbok Flats 

 and you will still see the words " barren, water- 

 less desert." But the deep bore and the 

 principles of dry-farming have turned those 

 arid wastes into the richest arable lands in the 

 Transvaal. So it shall be with the " Great 

 Thirst Land ! " Livingstone writes : 



" The space from the Orange River in the 

 south, lat. 29, to Lake Ngami, in the .north, and 

 from about 24 east long, to near the west coast, 

 has been called a desert because, though inter- 

 sected by the bed of ancient rivers, it contains 

 no running water, and very little in wells. Far 

 from being destitute of vegetation, it is covered 

 with grass and creeping plants ; and there are 

 large patches of bushes and even trees. In 



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