The Nevada picayune., 1885-07-02
THROUGH THE vELDT.
The Land Where The Sun is Always
 in n Hurry.

Sunrise in Southern Africa is a peculiarity of the country. In South Africa the sun is always in a hurry. In early morning you shiv- CT with frost, and arc glad to wei come the blaze of his rounded maj csty over the hills. For tho first half hour he is perfect, tho side of your body furthcrest from him may feel like an icicle, but that next 10 him will be done to q turn; in 10 minutes more he will begin to over. do it, and will go on overdoing 1t till you are altogether overdone. Time was of value to man who was up 70 his tricks, SC l cantercd across the valley; quitting it's pleas ant scene for the plains which cv- anywhere spread themselves. Small piles of bones, white and glistening marked where buck had been shot; their skins sell for few pence, yet the Boors arc shooting them down so rapidly that in some years hence the race will be ex- stinct. A few miles further l came upon another va Hey also holding a lake in its hollow, altogether diff. fcrent from the first. Here was a fringe of rocks, black and jagged, sticking out in points, against which the waves splashed. The lake was about two miles long, di- vided by d bridge of rocks, level with the water and eaten the countless holes, telling of the cid giants who had been blowing rock bubbles long ago in this neighbor- hood, when the bubbles, bursting, had hardened and filled with water. On the side fur.herest from me was rank of tall white birds, four deep, something like storks, but which turned out to be flamingOcs. In every pool were ducks paddling in pairs; waders stalked in the shadows; the center given up 10 black and white geese. But of all tho birds there the fiamingoos were the strangest. Their legs were so thin and so straight. their necks so absurdly unequal to their clumsy heads, tho scraps of red p!umage so marked a contrast 10 their snow. white feathers, their sOlcmnity ridiculous. Though there must l have been hundred of them, I could not det ect a movement in a single hamingo. Every bird was devoured with curiosity about my. self Every eye was watching me; I don't believe one of them winked. Then, all at once, the flock rose like a great white cloud-now white, and now pink again. The contrast between the lake and the veldt around it was very stricking. Here all was like and motion; the water birds darting ceaselessly, leaving wakes like silver lines that. broad ened and died ont. The geese sailing far out of reach, calmly Ob- servant; the flamingoes overhead manGuvering against the sky; on inc beach at my feet the sand-pi- pers running races after tho worms. A dozen steps ID the bank aud l looked over a sea of grass across which the wagon.track wound away to the sky line, and it was over this dreary waste that now turned reluctantly. There were more heaps of bones, and a few bucks scattered widely. A fat hare jumping up under my pony's feet was startling. Here and there lay an OK, dead long ago, it's frame. work dried to mummy, attractive to vultnrcs-dirty brown birds. who craned their necks and slideG away from their feast as I rode past; sights which q traveller in South Africa knows too well. So
 l rode for many miles, the turf gemm6d with flowers, a light yell 1 low star in clusters more common than the rest.-Gentlcman's Maga zine.