RUAUXATIN'C AXIAIALS. 
97 
only are to be found : iliese are fast falling before 
the march of civilization, and are only to be seen in 
verdure the evening before, covered with thousands, and 
reaped level with tlie ground. In.stancea have been known 
of some of these prodigiou-s droves pa.ssing through flocks 
ot sheep, and numbers of the latter carried along with the 
torrent being lost to their owners, and becoming a prey to 
the wild bea.st8. As long as these droughts last, their in- 
roads and depreuations continue; and the havock commit- 
ted upon them is of course great, as they constitute the 
food of all classes; but, no sooner do the rains fall than 
they disappear, and, in a few days, become as scarce on 
the northern borders as in the more protected districts of 
Brucntjes-Hoogtc-C.amdebor. 
_ “ The African colonists themselves can form no concep. 
tion of the cause of the ex.raordinary appearance of these 
animals; and, from their not being able to account for it, 
those who have not lieen eye-witnesses of these scenes con- 
sider their account as exaggerated; but a little more mi- 
nute inspection of the country south of the Orange River 
solves the difficulty at once. The immense desert tracts 
between that river and our colony, westward of the Zeekoe 
river, destitute of permanent springs, and therefore unin- 
habitable by human beings for any length of time,'are, not- 
withstanding, interspersed with stagnant pools, and ‘ vie, s’ 
or natural reservoirs of brackish water, which, however b^d, 
satisfies he game. In these extensive boundless plains. 
Springboks multiply, undisturbed by the hunter (except 
when occasionally a Bosjesmnn is by starvation driven to 
make the attempt), until the country literally swarms with 
them ; when perhaps one year, out of four or five, a lasting 
roug eaves the pools exhausted, and parches up the 
soil naturally inclined to sterility. Want, then, prinei- 
pallr of water, drives those myri;ids of animals either to 
e Orange River, or to the colony, when they intrude in 
the manner above described. But when the bountiful 
tender-clouds pour their torrents upon our burnt-up coun- 
ry, reanimating vegetation, and restoring plenty to all 
VOL. III. 
