Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1890-01-05
ACROSS THE KARROO.
"Afar In the Desert / Love to Ride
Lives Saved by a Little Pool.
II,lalrnfed Ionndor, Nl,rn

from Cape Town, passing through the
pretty villages Of Psarl and Ceres, with
the vineyards and maize fields, and had
now reached the edge Of the desert known
as the Karroo. The site is marked on the
map South Africa as beginning beyond
this range of the great ZEarte BLACK
Mountains.
The entrance to the Ksrroo is through 9
small gorge about a quarter Of mile long
and twenty yards wide, with abcupt walls
of stone on either side, which seem to in
dictate that at some former period stream
of water had passed out through this gorge
from q lake, whose bed is now an arid
desert. The distance across the desert to
the point we wished to reach was 100 miles,
which we decided to accomplish in three
days. 1t was necessary to be careful OF
our four horses, knowing there was no
water on the journey for them. We hoped
to do forty miles the fret day and thirty
miles each day of the two following. We
entered the Karroo Poort (Karroo Gate at
sunrise and set out on our hazsrdons jour-
ney.
/ should state that we had stopped over
uight at g last farmhouse near the Poort
to give our horses rest and good feed,
aud to supply ourselves with forage for
them and ourselves, filling every available
vessel with the precious fluid. Our con-
veyancs was light, though strongly-built
Cape cart, on occasion covered with can
vas hood to protect Us from the SUMS rsys,
and there were four of US. No one can sst
upon desert journey without mingled
emotions of hope and fear. There are so
many contingencies lying along those
weary roads, and roads rendered more des-
olste by the bleaching bones of dead ami
msls-ior often the willing beasts, the
horses and oxen, fall with fatigue, and see
with dying gaze the keen-eyed vultnres
swooping from afsr.
As we entered lhe desert it spread be-
fore us on every side like boundless
brown sea, silent, solitary and vast. AS
the sun rose into the sky the warmth be-
came intense, and when by midday we
halted we could see the heat rising from
the scorched plains in wavy columns like
golden flames. There is no greater ale
viator of thirst than cold tea, and no
safer stimulant in a torrid land. When
the horses were being embarrassed and fed,
Meadows and prepared for midday meal.
| In three hours we broke up camp and
went on again until the day was nearly
gone-a day that had passed fairly well.
There was neither tree nor mountain In
sight, nothing to break the level monotony
that stretched as far as the eye could see.
We encamped for the night in the midst OF
this swelling loneliness, and then perhaps
for the first time began to feel its power.
We spent the last hour before shutdown In
cutting and gathering quantity Of brush
wood (Karroo shrub, the only thing that
grows upon these plsins) to feed necessa-
ry fire to protect us from the wolves and
| iacksls which scour the desert in packs.
After supper we put away our tin dish
es, replenished our big fire, wrapped our
selves in our rugs, and Icy down with our
weapons by our sides and our feet to the
fire.
Adolph and Wilhelm Moritz, happy
Dutchmen, were soon asleep. Meadows
and lay chatting for some time, then re-
lapsed into quietness, the deep and strange
silence that surrounded Us broken only by
the stir of the horses tied to the wagon
pole. The singular sensation of lying in
this noiseless desert drove sleep from my
eyes, and lay awake long time after
George Meadows had fallen asleep. Sud-
denly there came into the dead silence o
long, sharp, piercing cry, answered by an
other in the opposite direction equally dis
tant; these were the cries OF jacknals
Then came the bark Of a wolf, answered by
a chorus. and Meadows suddenly rose into a
sitting position. 1.-THE brutes are comiDg"
he exclaimed. Instantly hundred threats
seemed to be baying into the darkness,
drawing nearer and nearer, until we could
see. surrounding us like q circle of fire,
the scintillation of red eyes. The scene
had now become one of startling reality
all about us the dense darkness, lighted
only. and in manner made more percepti-
BILE, by the rays of the glowing brushTood
embers; in ell directions about Us the glare
of shining eyes, and now the brutes came
so near that we could hear the angry snarls
and the swapping Of the jaws.
George Meadows rose and threw fresh
fuel on the fire; the fame that cracked
and flashed up brought into view the
shaggy forms of the gray wolves, the
striped hyenas, behind them, again, the
isckels: and the horses, realizing that
their deadly enemies were close at hand,
gave low whinries, as though calling upon
us for protection. The Moritz brothers
were up, and tSgether with ourselves,
opened fire upon the animals, shooting at
the shifting masses where they seemed
thickest. answered by bowls and cries Of
rage as our bullets tore their way into the
restless groups. For an hour or
more the animals skulked around;
but. as we kept our brushwood
FIRE in good condition, they finally
gave up what we feared was premedi-
tsted attack and stole away. And then
we rested, and knew no more until the
chilly dawn awoke us, when fresh mis-
fortune awaited us. In the confusion OF
the night before q wooden canteen, filed
with water, had been kicked over, the
hing started and much of the contents
lest. While the horses we're being fed
and 'inspaDned," Meadows made coffee,
and then, greatly refreshed, we set out
before the sun was up, journeying still
deeper into the desert. Our drive
was dreary pull. once we
passed cloee to where flock OF
vultures were feeding on the carcass of
some animal that hsd wandered of the
road to die. Our track was lined with
whitened bones. After we had halted for
an hours rest and hurried breakfast we
went on again, and should have been in
coed spirits enough had not our horses, in
iursd as they were, begun to show unmis-
taxable signs of the fatigue that follows
lack of water.
We ourselves had not too much to salts
fv the needs of four men, and we deter
mined to put ourselves on short allowance
since the mishap of the night before. After
the midday "outspan" our late afternoon
iourney was enlivened by singular dis
NAV of thieving boldness. We were slow
u..LL;,o,, oIono the two drivers of