Chap. Y. THE BOERS AS FARMERS. 103 



must have its fountain ; and where no suck supply of water exists, 

 the government lands are unsaleable. 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 frmtfulness 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 

 system 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 gradually spreading to the north. This movement proves 

 prejudicial to the country behind, for labour, 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 directed to the improvement of the colony, is withdrawn and 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 in- 

 dustrial habits. That, however, does not much concern the rest of 

 mankind. Nor does it seem much of an evil for men who culti- 

 vate 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 recognition in England would lead to the seizure of all our 

 broad ancestral 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 plough than is subjected to 

 the native hoe, for it is a fact that the Basutos and Zulus, or 

 Caffres of Natal, cultivate largely, and undersell our farmers 

 wherever they have a fair field and no favour. 



Before we came to the Orange river we saw the last portion 

 of a migration of springbucks {Gazella eueliore, or tsepe). They 

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

 crossing the colonial boundary, are said often to exceed forty 

 thousand in number. I cannot 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 



