A DUCK DRIVE NEAR JOHANNESBURG 



HE dam has been 

 drained dry by the 

 droughts and mine 

 pumps, and the spur- 

 wing geese and pink- 

 bill teal, of which we 

 were wont to take toll, 

 have flown to other 

 waters." The foregoing 

 extract from the letter 

 of a mining engineer on 

 the Rand recalled to my 

 mind many an enjoyable early morning and evening 

 spent amongst the different kinds of fowl which used 

 to frequent the small lagoon in question some ten or 

 twelve years ago. The Wemmer dam lies within two 

 miles of the " Golden City " of South Africa, and at 

 the time of which I speak it was a fine, albeit shallow, 

 piece of water, covering an area of perhaps twenty acres, 

 and being fringed on all sides with high, bamboo-like 

 reeds ; while clumps of the same, growing in different 

 parts of the lagoon, afforded excellent cover to the spur- 

 wing geese, duck, pink-bill teal, coots, and other kinds 

 of aquatic fowl which resorted thereto. The spongy 

 shores of the dam, as well as the surrounding patches of 



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