58 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



sparsely covered with a growth of low scrub, in 

 appearance not altogether unlike Scotch heather, 

 and, except when the rains fall, their expanse pre- 

 sents a brown and somewhat barren appearance. 

 When the rains come, the karroo, having naturally 

 a fertile soil, starts at the touch of moisture into an 

 immense and beautifully variegated ocean of flowers, 

 which, in turn, shortly disappears under the hot 

 African sun. Notwithstanding drought, the sheep, 

 goats, and ostriches of the Cape farmer flourish 

 exceedingly upon the parched herbage ; and were it 

 not for the ever-present difficulty and danger of the 

 lack of water, pastoral farming would be a calling 

 fairly free from care. Quite recently, wells and 

 windmills have been employed on these plains 

 with successful results, and there are people who 

 prophecy that one day the parched face of the 

 Great Karroo will smile under yellow crops of 

 corn. Undoubtedly irrigation and tree-planting have 

 a brilliant future before them in the Cape Colony, 

 which in years to come will be a great grain- 

 producing country. The kraals are here composed 

 of high walls of solid bricks, cut out of the enclosures 

 themselves, from the dung of the sheep, dried by 

 the sun, and hardened by the constant trampling 

 of thousands of ovine feet, almost to the con- 

 sistency of kiln-dried bricks. This substance also, 

 under the Boer name of "mist," constitutes with 

 a little wood the principal firing of the Karroo 

 farmer. Bidding good-bye to our hospitable enter- 

 tainers, we entered upon the rough track, called in 

 these regions a road, and with the earliest gleams 

 of morning light pursued our way. Almost imme- 

 diately, amidst a blaze of ruddy gold, the sun-god 



