The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1876-02-11
MISCELLANY.
South Africa.

South Africa.
The clouds which the Indian Ocean
sends to South Africa linger over this
region of mountain peak, and shed
their showers upon it through the
months ofsummer; but in the winter the
skies are clear, the sun shine over the
land, and the clouds which occasionally
gather upon the peaks float away, leav-
ing them clothed in dazzling snow, and
scanned with ice-erusted cataracts. Ma
NY rivers have their sources in this
mountain region, and east, west, north
and south streams flow forth from it intn
a lower set land. Streams of small size
and of large, streams which soon swell
into mighty rivers. and become yellow
and muddy as they roll toward far-sep-
arated oceans, forgetting the pnre iradi-
tions oftheir birth among the snow hills
in the turmoil Of matnrer life. Looked
at from its many sides, Basuioland pres
ents always to the traveller a sight filled
with sense of freshness and of pleas
ure. From whatever peint he regards it,
he must ever look up to it, east or west,
north or south; il first rises before him
in the outline of stupendOus mountain
whose SUBMITS yield to the eye, long
wearied of the leaden level of intermin-
able plain, that cool draught which l.
fresh as water to thirsty wanderer in
desert land But if from all sides it Is
grateful 10 the eye, from the east side il
is something more; spread beneath it to
the east Lies 8 fair and fruitful land,
land whose highest level is fully 1000
feet lower down, and whose plains and
hills lie outlaid at its feet, like vast
sea beneath lofty shore. This land Of
lower level is Natal; where Natal ends
on the west, Basutoland begins on the
east, and begins in line SO abrupt, SO
rugged, so scarped into precipice, and
turret, and pinnacle, that it would seem
as though nature had uPraised mighty
wall of rock to mark forever her line of
separation between the mountain called
Basutoland, and the meadow called Ma
tall There are not many sights in South
Africa which linger longer in the travel
er's mind than that which can be seen
almost every morning from the eastern
ridge of Basutoland-the Drakensberg
It is sunrise over Natal, up from the
haze which hangs over the Indian sea
the haze which has turned to varying
green. and gold, and crimson, as he drew
nearer to the surface-comes the great
blood red sun, flashing on the rent pin
nacles of the mountain wall while yet
the region far below is wrapped in pur-
pie mist. No towns, no hamlets, no
homesteads stud the vast plain beneath;
but scores of rivers wind through great
grass-covered valleys, and from their un-
seen beds, long riffs of snow hite vapor
float upward toward the growing light,
and wreathe themselves along the feet of
hills and cling TO kloof, and catch upon
their upmost b;llows the light in which
they are SO soon to die. And as the light
grows stronger. and the flying remnants
of night imprisoned at the base of the
great cliffs are killed by the shafts which
the day filings into "krance" and cavern,
there lies spread before the eyes a vast
succession of hill and valley, tall top
ped mountain, cleaning river-all green
with grass-dew freshened and silent
This j. Natal. Far away. beyond all, a
vague blank upon the horizon, the un-
seen sea is felt by the sight, where, at the
furthest verge of vision, the Indian
ocean sleeps in space. But there is an
other sight which the traveller sees just
called Natal, he looks up to the lofty
ridge of Basutoland. The day has done
ats work; the sun has gone down behind
the western barrier; turret, dome, and
rent mountain pinnacle; are clear cut in
snow and purple against the green and
saffron curtain of the sunset; the wall of
rock is dark at its base, indistint in its
center, sharp and luStrous along its ser
rated summit; the night gathers at it's
feet; the day fingers around its head;
there is a shade of untold beauty in the
sky, a green, such as one sometimes sees
tn Sevres, and which have never seen
in sunset, save in Natal. The night deep
ems, and the light dies; but long after
nightfall that glorious light still lives in
the western sky. and the unnnmbered
peaks. and Jagged spires, and pfnnacled
turrets of the Drakensberg stand in lofty
Loneliness as. though guarding the slow
retreat of day into some far off world
GGood Words.