1 8 A Breath from the Veldt 



under the impression that it is a sort of hybrid El Dorado and Arcadia ; but 

 go to Beaufort West, or some other healthy town in the Karroo district, where 

 life, however quiet, is a pleasure, and a small fortune may be made by starting 

 a fruit-canning factory, as you can obtain the material there for next to nothing. 

 While making your pile, however, don't forget to whom you owe this hint. 

 Dear to his memory are those delicious figs of Beaufort West, and he will 

 sample them for you at any time, free of charge. 



From the sportsman's point of view, the chief attraction of Beaufort West 

 is the springbuck shooting, and this is in every way excellent. A man who 

 can kill his seven stags in eight shots in Scotland is apt to plume himself on 

 his skill with the rifle ; but let him go South and shoot, or rather shoot at, 

 springbuck for a fortnight, and he will, at any rate, find that his average is 

 not quite so good. He may count himself lucky if, as a new-comer, he can 

 account for one springbuck in forty cartridges ; many who are by no means bad 

 shots are occasionally run into the hundreds for shooting a single animal. And 

 the reason for this is not far to seek. First of all, the springbuck, though 

 longer in the legs, is hardly larger in the body than an ordinary sheep, and 

 as it is not easy to get nearer than 400 yards, he presents to the eye so small 

 a mark as to require not only very accurate shooting but a perfect light. 

 Then, as to distance, a sportsman new to the country is much puzzled in 

 finding that, owing to atmospheric causes, it is not to be judged by the standard 

 to which he is accustomed at home ; and only by experience can he learn 

 to adapt his aim to the altered conditions under which he finds himself. 

 Nevertheless I would strongly recommend this Karroo shooting as the finest 

 training-ground I know, for hand, eye, and brain. Let the sportsman not be 

 disheartened by his failures at first, for all begin like that ; if he can shoot at 

 all, his marksmanship will rapidly improve, and in time he will be able to kill 

 as many bucks as those whom at first he might perhaps have envied. The air of 

 the Karroo is very rarefied, but not nearly so much so as that of the " Rockies " 

 or Cashmere (though I cannot speak of the latter of the two countries from 

 personal experience) and the eye has to become trained to the altered conditions 

 of light. 



Although the springbucks of to-day are but a scattered remnant of what 

 they were in days gone by, when they roamed in countless multitudes over the 

 vast plains of South Africa, they are still by far the commonest representatives 

 of the antelope tribe in that country. Much has been done of late years, and is 

 still being done, I am glad to say, to protect them in all parts of the Karroo 



