THE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



mass of bone, when once the white ants 

 had stripped it clean of all impurities, 

 and left it among the rustling leaves. I 

 have found an elephant's jaw and teeth in 

 the Start woods that had in all probability 

 been exposed there for a much longer 

 period, but showed no symptoms if 

 decay. 



My first seacow must also stand to the 

 credit of the old gun. I had been pop- 

 ping at noses the whole of a bright after- 

 noon on the sandy shore of the lagoon 

 which stretches up from the mouth of the 

 Matikulu, with no other effect than that of 

 cutting the placid surface into a thousand 

 ripples ; when, just before sundown, a 

 monstrous head rose quietly out of the 

 water, and was instantly greeted with a 

 bullet. The head sunk at once, noise- 

 lessly, and without motion — a sure sign 

 that the bullet had gone home ; and know- 

 ing that the creature would not rise again 

 for many hours, I walked back to my wagon, 

 and slept the sleep of the tired hunter. 

 In the morning we found the body 

 floating, and I had the unpleasant task of 

 swimming out with a long riem, or chain 

 of riems, and making it fast to- a leg. Un- 

 pleasant, indeed, for the river swarmed 

 with alligators ; but by dint of thrashing 

 the water with sticks, and throwing big 

 stones as near the carcase as we could, 

 either we frightened them away, or they 

 ' were off on some other quest, for I swam 

 back unmolested, and we hauled our 

 quarry to land. 



For weeks the long strips, cut from the 

 back and sides, hung in festoons along 

 the wagon tent, furnishing many a savoury 

 and wholesome meal, and making even 

 tough Buffalo meat palatable ; for seacow 

 fat is better than the best bacon, and you 

 are never sated with it. I say is, but I fear 

 it should be " was " ; for the seacow is 

 worse than a patent mowing machine in a 

 croj) of oats, and he leaves nothing for 

 the rake ; so he had to go. 



Whether he is still to be found in 

 the lake to which he gave a 

 name in Victoria County I know 

 not. The last I saw in Natal was shot 

 early in the year 1855, in the Umgeni, a 

 mile or two above the Albert Bridge ; but 

 long after that they used to feed on the 

 forage crops at Malton, till Mr. Florey 

 frightened them away by the nightly dis- 

 charge of a blunderbuss. As for the gun, 

 many a haunch of inkonka, tender and 

 tasty as four-year-old Welsh mutton, 

 did it provide for us at the Start, not to 

 mention a couple of leopards, which were 

 shot by my black keeper, Qinalitshona, 

 alias Jack. Into his possession at length, 

 with the consent of the Governor, the old 

 gun passed. It was about the best of the 

 muzzle-loaders, and is now out of fashion 

 and out of date ; but given a breechloader 

 of the same quality, its owner, if he could 

 hold it straight, would be a match for 

 any beast of the field, pachyderm or 

 otherwise, from an elephant to a Bengal 

 tiger. 



Report on irrigation in Natai. 



By Colonel F. V. Corbett, R.E., Irrigation Expert. 

 {Concluded.) 



Appendix I. — Personal. 



J ARRIVED at Pietermaritzburg on 

 25th May, 1899, and after a few trips 

 to various parts of the Colony I submitted 

 a short preliminary report on 21st July. 

 At about this time it was advertised in 

 the Agricultural Journal that my ser- 

 vices were available to the public on 

 application to the Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture, and it was subsequently made 

 known that no fees would be charged. I 

 visited several farmers by appointment, 



and gave them advice with regard to 

 minor irrigation works. In August, at 

 the request of the Minister of Agricul- 

 ture, I visited the Coast, staying for a 

 short time at Mr. Reynolds' Sugar Estate, 

 near Umzinto, and with Mr. Saunders on 

 the Tongaat Estate, and on as far as 

 Stanger. From the date of my return to 

 Maritzburg, about the end of August, 

 rumours of war began to unsettle matters, 

 and, on trying to make appointments with 

 several applicants in Klip River and 



