plateau south of the Zambesi, the Boer lan included, must be pronounced distinctly mon

Herbaceous forms greatly predominat yielding extremely succulent pasturage durin the wet summer months, but mostly parche in the dry winter season. In fact, arborea growths, here characteristically called "bush, are mainly confined to the spruits, or rive valleys, where the steppe streams are ofter densely fringed with willows, yellow - wood iron-wood, the wild fig (in the deeper gorges), and especially the thorny mimosa.

On the other hand, the soil is naturally fertile, and wherever the plough can penetrate, the husbandman is well rewarded for his labour. "Some districts yield two annual crops of cereals, including some of the finest wheat in the world. Tobacco, the vine, and most European fruits and vegetables thrive well; and colonial produce, such as sugar, coffee, and cotton, might be successfully cultivated in the valley of the Limpopo, whose middle course lies within the torrid zone."1 But not more than 50,000 acres, an in1 A. H. Keane, Africa, ii. p. 303.

finitesimal fraction of the available arable area, have as yet been brought under cultivation, and the consequence is that the farm produce is insufficient for the local demands.

CHAPTER V

FAUNA

Tsetse and Locust Pests-Disappearance of Big GamePreserves - Domestic Animals The Basuto HorseStatistics of Live Stock-Hottentot Herds and Flocks.

H

ERE is, therefore, a great field for future agricultural enterprise, which, as would seem, will not even be arrested by the tsetse pest. On the contrary, there are indications that, like and with the big game, this winged poison disappears with the progress of human culture.

On the south (Transvaal) side of the Limpopo the infested zone ranges from eight or ten to perhaps eighty miles from the river banks, and that is the reason why explorers before venturing into this deadly tract have to outspan, and send back their teams of oxen, their horses, and all other domestic animals which succumb to the fatal puncture,

from which, strange to say, man himself enjoys absolute immunity. In these districts the sagacious elephant is said to be well aware of the protection thus afforded against pursuit by mounted hunters. Hence these animals "often take refuge in the riverine tracts along the course of the Limpopo, where the sportsman can follow them only on foot, or else mounted on horses with a shaggy coat thick enough to prevent the sting from piercing the hide.

"It is commonly supposed that the pestiferous insect will disappear from the country together with the large game, especially the buffalo and certain species of antelopes, with which it is always found associated. Travellers mention certain districts from which the dreaded tsetse has already been driven, and the belief seems justified that this winged pest retreats with the advance of the plough. Hence the increase of population and the development of agriculture will probably one day enable civilised man to introduce domestic animals into the Limpopo valley."1

Another winged pest, perhaps even more 1 Reclus, English ed., xiii. p. 208.

to be dreaded, is the locust, which sometimes rolls in dense clouds over the plateau, consuming all verdure, and, like a prairie fire, leaving nothing in its wake except a cleanswept waste. "Seated beneath the shade of his waggon, on the banks of the Vaal, the traveller Mohr observed on the south-western horizon what looked like great volumes of smoke, but from its yellowish hue was at once recognised by the natives as the alldevouring locust. They began to fall, first a few at a time, then in dozens, and presently by thousands and myriads. They came in such vast clouds as to darken the heavens, so that through all the moving mass you were able to look straight at the sun, which, though at its zenith, became dulled and beamless as when visible in a London fog. Flocks of locust - eaters incessantly assailed this surging sea of insect life, but their numbers were infinite, countless as the sands of the desert. Far and wide the whole land was filled with them; the waters of the Vaal, covered with their bodies, assumed a greyyellow colour, and the garden of the neighbouring farmstead was in a few minutes left