A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 25 



of the smaller antelopes, all abounded in extravagant 

 profusion, exactly as they had done for countless 

 ages, undisturbed save by a few aboriginal bushmen, 

 or wandering Hottentots, armed only with the 

 most miserable and ineffective weapons. The lion 

 everywhere stalked in lordly pride ; the ponderous 

 rhinoceros roamed far and wide ; and the elephant 

 wandered freely across from one grazing-ground to 

 another. Alas, how have the mighty fallen ! Most 

 of these noble animals have been improved from 

 the face of the earth in these regions. Truly, the 

 Boers of South Africa have, since their landing in 

 1652, enjoyed a good innings in this most wonderful 

 of game countries. 



In the old days the journeys across the Karroo 

 were, in dry seasons, attended with frightful 

 sufferings to man and beast ; and many a hardy 

 Dutchman, many a span of stout oxen, have, when 

 trekking from one fountain to another, gone down 

 upon these plains to rise no more. Even at the 

 present day, when droughts occur, sheep and goats 

 perish in enormous numbers, and the farmers' flocks 

 sometimes almost disappear altogether. Pringle has 

 truly written of this parched plateau as 



" A region of drought, where no river glides, 

 Nor rippling brook with osiered sides ; 

 Where sedgy pool, nor bubbling fount, 

 Nor tree, nor cloud, nor misty mount, 

 Appears to refresh the aching eye : 

 But barren earth and the burning sky, 

 And the blank horizon round and round, 

 Spread — void of living sight or sound." 



But it must not be imagined that the Karroo is 

 a sandy worthless desert. On the contrary, its rich 

 red soil, though baked and sun-dried by the 



