A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 209 



them. They, themselves, know not exactly what it 

 is that binds them so passionately to a life not 

 seldom of inordinate toil and privation. Once the 

 veldt fever has bitten them, they can never entirely 

 forget or forsake their semi-civilised existence. Perils, 

 wounds, fevers, hunger, thirst, and hardships of 

 every kind ; none of these can quench the love they 

 bear for their self-chosen hunter's life. The open 

 air ! The open veldt ! Ever-changing scenery ; 

 everywhere a glorious game country ; everywhere 

 a spice of danger; and beneath it all, burning 

 brightly in their ardent souls, lies, I am convinced, 

 a keen — if to themselves a half-hidden, half- 

 comprehended — love of the beautiful, oftentimes 

 purer and more true than the pallid sentiment, the 

 jargon of nonsense, heard but too often in the 

 crowded picture galleries of cities. 



H 



