244 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



an almost unknown district thirty or forty Angoras, 

 which were carried to the coast packed on the backs 

 of mules. Some of the rams thus imported realised 

 from £ioo to :£"400 a-piece amongst the farmers of 

 Graaff Reinet and other parts of the Eastern 

 province. But the Angoras have at length all poured 

 forth from their kraals, and their silken coats glinting 

 beneath the sunshine, are off to the broad plains for 

 the long hot day in charge of Kaffir herd boys. Well 

 may our host look lovingly after them. His clip of 

 Angora hair is the largest in the world, and he possesses 

 the greatest number of goats — 20,000, all Angoras, 

 or half-bred Angoras — to be found on one farm in 

 South Africa. The annual clip of mohair from these 

 flocks amounts to 50,000 lbs. Some farmers clip 

 their goats twice a year ; but this is a greedy and 

 short-sighted policy, which in the long run brings 

 weakness and deterioration alike to goats and to 

 mohair. Upon the estate of Riet Fontein each 

 year 4*, 000 kids are reared ; occasionally seven 

 hundred are dropped in one day. This may continue 

 for a day or two, and then the number diminishes, 

 perhaps to increase later, for, unlike sheep, the 

 kidding appears to progress by fits and starts. 

 During this season, the goats are kept in large 

 camps enclosed by wire-fencing, and the kids are 

 immediately after birth fastened to the fence by the 

 hind leg. Goats resemble the springbok and other 

 game in their propensity for leaving their young in 

 one place and warjdering away for a time. At one 

 time the kids were fastened to the karroo bushes, 

 but it was found that in looking them up and putting 

 them into kraal, after fourteen days or so, many were 

 hidden in the thick herbage and left behind ; and 



