The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1885-07-04
THROUGH THE VsLDT.
Peculiarities of South African Ian dscape-
The Sun in "A Hurry.

The Sun in a Hurry.
Sunrise in South Africa is peculiar.
ity of the country, In South Africa the
sun Is always in a hurry. In early
morning you SILVER with the frost and
are glad to welcome the blaze of his
rounded majesty over the hills For the
first half hour he is perfect, the side of
your body furthest from him may feel
like an icicle. but that next to him will
be done to turn; in ten minutes more
he will begin to overdo it and will go
on overriding it till you are altogether
overdone. Time was of value to a man
who was up to his tricks, so cantered
across the valley, quitting its pleasant
scene for the plains which everywhere
spread themselves. Small piles OF
bones, white and glistening, marked
where buck had been shot; their skins
sell for few pence, yet the Beers are
shooting them down so rapidly that in
some years hence the race will be ex-
tinct. A few miles further | came upon
another valley, also holding lake in its
hollow, altogether different 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, divided
/ by a bridge of rocks, level with the
water and eaten into countless holes,
/" telling of the old giants who had been
blowing rock bubbles long ago in this
neighborhood, when the bubbles, burst
ing, had hardened and filled with water.
/ On the side furthest from me was rank
Of tall, white birds, four deep, something
/ like storks, but which turned out to be
hamingoes. In every pool were ducks,
pad ling in pairs; waders stalk1d
in the shadows; the center given ups TO
black and white geese. But OF all the
BIRDS there the tlamngoes were the
strangest Their legs were so thin and
so straight, their necks SO adsurdly I'M
equal to their clumsy heads, the scraps
ofred plumage so marked contrast to
their snow-white feathers, their solem-
nifty ridiculous. Though there must
have been hundred Of them, | could
not detect movement in a single
famingo. Every bird was devoured
with curiosity about myself. Every eye
was watching me; l don't be!ieve
one of them wnked. Then, all at once,
the flock rose like great white cloud
now white, and now pink again. The
contrast between the lake and the Celdl
around it was very striking. Here all
was life and motion; the water-birds
darling ceaselessly, leaving wakes like
silver lines that broadened and died out
the geese sailing far out of reach, calm.
ly observant; the famingoes overhead
manpuvering against the sky; on the
beach at my feet the sand-pipers run.
ming races after the worms. A dozen
steps up the bank and | looked over
sea of grass across which the wagon
track wound away TO the sky line; and
it was over this dreary waste that Inow
turned reluctantly. There were more
heaps of bones, and few bucks scat
tered wild ly A fat hare jumping VI
under my pony's feet was startling.
Here and there lay an OK, dead long
ago, its framework dried to mummy,
attractive to the vultures-dirty brown
birds, who craned their necks anC
sidled away from their feast rs l rode
past; sights which a traveller in Soutl
Africa knows too well. So | rode fol
many miles, the turf gemmed with flow
ers, light yellow star in clusters NOR
common than the rest. -GentyenlaRS
Udgdzine.