THE BOEKS AS FARMERS. 1X7 



must have its fountain ; and where no such supply of water ex- 

 ists, the government lands are unsalable. An acre in England is 

 thus generally more valuable than a square mile in Africa. But 

 the country is prosperous, and capable of great improvement. The 

 industry of the Boers augurs well for the future formation of dams 

 and tanks, and for the greater fruitfulness that would certainly 

 follow. 



As cattle and sheep farmers the colonists are very successful. 

 Larger and larger quantities of wool are produced annually, and 

 the value of colonial farms increases year by year. But the sys- 

 tem requires that with the increase of the population there should 

 be an extension of territory. Wide as the country is, and thinly 

 inhabited, the farmers feel it to be too limited, and they are gradu- 

 ally spreading to the north. This movement proves prejudicial 

 to the country behind, for labor, which would be directed to the 

 improvement of the colony, is withdrawn and expended in a mode 

 of life little adapted to the exercise of industrial habits. That, 

 however, does not much concern the rest of mankind. Nor does 

 it seem much of an evil for men who cultivate the soil to claim a 

 right to appropriate lands for tillage which other men only hunt 

 over, provided some compensation for the loss of sustenance be 

 awarded. The original idea of a title seems to have been that 

 "subduing" or cultivating gave that right. But this rather 

 Chartist principle must be received with limitations, for its recog- 

 nition in England would lead to the seizure of all our broad an- 

 cestral acres by those who are willing to cultivate them. And, in 

 the case under consideration, the encroachments lead at once to 

 less land being put under the plow than is subjected to the native 

 hoe, for it is a fact that the Basutos and Zulus, or CafTres of Na- 

 tal, cultivate largely, and undersell our farmers wherever they have 

 a fair field and no favor. 



Before we came to the Orange Eiver we saw the last portion of 

 a migration of springbucks (Gasella euchore, or tsepe). They 

 come from the great Kalahari Desert, and, when first seen after 

 crossing the colonial boundary, are said often to exceed forty thou- 

 sand in number. I can not give an estimate of their numbers, 

 for they appear spread over a vast expanse of country, and make 

 a quivering motion as they feed, and move, and toss their graceful 

 horns. They feed chiefly on grass ; and as they come from the 



