A KARROO FARM, 243 



wherein 500 birds can wander freely. On the left 

 hand, as we pass Mr. Rex's, lie the houses of the 

 blacksmith and handy man — a very important 

 personage here — and other workpeople, and of the 

 herdsmen ; beyond, there are more stone kraals, 

 wherein the remainder of the flocks are shut up for 

 the night. Still further behind all these, forming a 

 glorious and ever-welcome background, stand the 

 mountains, stern and beautiful. But the flocks, to the 

 number of g,ooo or 10,000, are about to be unkraaled, 

 and we hasten to the oldest of the enclosures to 

 watch the process. Standing by the gate is our 

 host, who is desperately pre-occupied counting the 

 Angora goats as they defile forth for their day's 

 pasture on the veldt. This fleecy census is a business 

 never omitted by the Cape farmer, and it is astonish- 

 ing what marvellous rapidity and exactitude are 

 attained. Mr. Evans is famous for his Angoras, and 

 the beautiful creatures, with their long snow-white 

 silky hair, are well worthy of the care and trouble 

 bestowed upon their rearing. First brought into 

 prominence at the Cape in 1856, Angoras have 

 proved wonderfully successful, and the mohair clipped 

 from Cape stock now yields little, if at all to the 

 purest breeds of Asia Minor. 



Our host, who has perhaps done more for Angora 

 goat farming than any other man in the Colony, 

 was one of the earliest to recognise their value. He 

 has even undertaken a journey to Asia Minor in 

 search of the choicest strains of his favourites ; and 

 from the districts of Tcherkess and Geredeh, by 

 permission of the Sultan, he obtained some most 

 valuable stock. In this expedition he undertook a 

 journey of 1,200 miles inland, and brought out from 



