Oct. 39, 1915. 
of 1913, it is practically a desert, with 
dried up water courses and springs, 
dead orange groves, some of them 
over fifty years old, trees three cen- 
turies old now lifeless, desolate pas- 
ture lands devoid of cattle and other 
life. There is no game, either birds 
or animals, and the fields where fine 
crops once grew are now parched and 
dead. It is hard to believe, but true, 
that in the entire district of Water- 
berg, which is larger than the Free 
State, there was last year, no running 
water, and in the north of the district 
M¥etesis a stract over 4,000 square 
Gmlesmii extent. where there is no 
single drop of water, running or stag- 
nant, above the surface of the ground. 
The great Limpopo itself is dry for 
all the distance that its course covers 
in this district, and only by digging 
deep in its sandy bed can drinking 
water be found. Even after a very 
heavy rain in the neighborhood of its 
source, which flooded ‘its tributaries 
at the time the stream reached but a 
little way down the Limpopo, and 
not one drop of the water which fell 
in the upper regions reached the sea; 
all lost in the burning sands of the 
river’s bed. Only the fairly numer- 
ous thermal springs of the district re- 
nain unaffected by the drought, and 
on them the dwellers depend for 
drinking and irrigation. The famous 
sweet grass of this region is nearly 
gone, though in its place has come a 
coarser “sour” grass with ipeculiar 
drought resisting qualities. 
The life history of this “sour” 
grass is truly a fairy tale of botany. 
Its seeds are highly specialized, hav- 
ing a body shaped like a torpedo with 
a long tapering tail. They have at- 
tained in their perfection the tadpole 
shape affected by nature in thousands 
of forms. Magnified these seeds are 
seen to be studded all over with sharp 
stiff bristles set backward, while in 
the head is set an intensely hard, 
horny spike, sharp as a needle, with 
a crown of harpoon points at its base. 
The seeds not only cling to the coats 
of animals, and drift about in the 
wind, but penetrate into the internal 
tissues of animal and man, passing 
through coat, muscle and flesh where 
they cause much discomfort and 
great danger. An opportunity of 
seeing a startling wonder of plant 
life is offered when one comes across 
a mass of these seeds drifted together 
by the wind. If a little water is 
sprinkled on them, a tremor of awak- 
ening life is seen to stir them; move- 
ments in all directions follow, so 
animal like as to leave one in doubt 
whether they are really seeds or in- 
sects. First each seed disentangles 
NOREHE SHORE BREEZE 
itself, then the seedhead is lifted clear 
of the ground, foll»wing which a 
bend of the supporting tail turns the 
torpedo head earthward, and _ the 
needle point with its bristles is thrust 
into the damp soil by a continuous 
pressure of the tail. This latter move- 
ment is continued until the seed is 
embedded in the soil, the whole oper- 
ation occupying 15 minutes. If the 
soil is only slightly damp, the seed 
penetrates just beyond the line of 
moisture and remains without germi- 
nating until enough rain insures the 
safe sprouting of the future seedling. 
Thus equipped the sour grass exists 
despite the severe drought against. 
which the sweet grass is helpless. 
The effects of the drought were so 
far-reaching on the animal world that 
those animals capable of escape, fled 
early from the stricken area—man 
with his live stock among the first—- 
and now the entire middle veld is 
without human inhabitant, and the 
Ort practicallyweas désert.g -Over 
everything lies the silence of absolute 
lifelessness. It seems as if the desert 
had reached out an arm and taken 
unto itself for all time this great ex- 
tent of once fertile country, where 
for four and a half hours daily in no 
pot is the temperature less than 
100°F. 
The terrible heat and the absence 
of all moisture cause singular effects ; 
the hair is so electrified that when 
stroked lightly a crackling shower of 
sparks is evoked, and the fingernatis 
become so brittle they break constant- 
ly; both hair and nails seem to have 
lost all power of growth. All cellu- 
loid substances break up, and rubber 
becomes a useless spongy mass. The 
horses’ swishing tails crackle inces- 
santly and stand out in disheveled 
bushes, each individual hair as if 
wired, and in the night their flanks 
seem to be surrounded by miniature 
auroras of electric discharges. 
The big game have nearly all dis- 
appeared, most of them having 
trekked to more fertile country. 
Some of the remaining animals have 
had to change their natural habits; 
the nocturnal ant-bear is forced to 
search its food in broad day light on 
account of the fact that the ants in 
the hard ground can not be dug ont 
during a night. Most nocturnal 
beasts of prey also hunt during the 
day as well as by night; some leop- 
ards raided a nearby camp in the 
early afternoon, and the baboons, us- 
ually so afraid-of the dark, seem 
never to sleep, but walk about both 
day and night in search of food in 
any form. A crocodile was unearth- 
ed by the author’s party when digging 
15 
for water in the bed of a stream, a 
distance of four and a half feet be- 
neath the surface. This specimen 
was limp and fresh although appar- 
ently lifeless, and, together with some 
fish which were found nearby, »a% 
revived in a short time by the appli- 
cation of water. Animals not weil 
equipped to dig to the water follow 
those more fortunate and use their 
water holes; some of the wart-hogs 
are followed all day long by a retinue 
of other animals, awaiting an oppor- 
tunity to slake their thirsts. The wild 
dogs of the district, known as th: 
terrible hunting dogs, drive day and 
tight, attacking all animals, and are 
credited with having caught and 
killed an ostrich, previously an un- 
Leard of thing. 
Curiously enough the great heat 
seems not to affect certain of the lo- 
cal white ants; vast numbers came 
out of their holes at mid-day, formed 
a compact ball, and lay in the sun all 
day, although the ground was so hot 
that the bare hand could not stand 
contact for more than two or three 
seconds. 
DouBTFUL. 
“Arthur seems a bright, capable fel- 
low. I think he’ll get on.” 
“Well, he’s certainly a worthy 
young man, but I doubt whether he 
has -head enough to fill his father’s 
shoes.” 
“No Shooting” signs for sale at 
the Breeze office,—cloth, 20c each; 
cardboard, roc. 
Your Printing 
SQ. Cj WWWwWw_0 °  ™é*b°ho wm 
Have the Breeze 
Do It For You.. 
MQ. ”]1UlDUHRhrhwlLLxuno IN 
Book, Pamphlet and Publication 
Work our Specialty 
MANCHESTER FIRE ALARM BOXES 
31 Corner Sea and Washington sts. 
33 Telephone Exchange Office. 
34 Summer Street, P. H. Boyle’s Stable. 
41 Corner Bridge and Pine sts. 
43 Corner Harbor and Bridge sts. 
52 Fire Engine house, School st. 
54 Corner School and Lincoln sts. 
56 School Street, opposite the grounds of 
the Essex County club. 
61 Sea Street, H. S. Chase’s house. 
62 Corner Beach and Masconomo. 
64. ‘‘Lobster Cove.’’ 
Two blasts, all.out or under control. 
Three blasts, extra call. 
Direction for giving an alarm: Break 
the glass, turn the key and open the door, 
pull the hook down once and let go. 
