The age-herald., 1900-03-15
THE SOUTH
 AFRICA VELDT

without the final "t." It means an unfor- ested or thinly forested tract of land, what cowboys would call grass country" The higher tracts, entirely destitute of timber, are called the high veldt; areas thinly cov- cred with scrub or bush are known as bush- veldt. The great veldt of the Transvaal is the Hooge of the Drakenberg range, whose edge attains height at the summit named Mauoh of SIPS feet.
 
 Portions of Nevada, especially some of the areas lying north of the Central Pa cifc railroad; great stretches in the Sho- sRnone country and other stretches about the Pocatello reservation, as well as strips in Texas. are somewhat similar in charac- ter to the veldts of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, although it is doubtful If the sun beats down upon them with the savagery it exercises where the Boer and Briton now face each other. Mafe- king, where Baden-Powell is now fighting for life and British victory, is in the heart of veldt upon which," writes a traveller. 'there rests the silence of horror: where
 
 and excessive heat." A brief season of the year comes when this is not so; when dry torrent beds fill and the brief rains fall Wild flowers blossom. the grasses turn from gray and brown to green, and native birds chirrup shrilly as they flutter from bush to bush. Then the veldt is color picture, a plauque of nature, upon which the eye set ties for rest So brief are these periods, though. that men forget them, and re- member but the terror of the parched veldt when the clouds come no more, the wind is scorching at midnight or raw and cold, and the mirage of water dances be- fore the crazed eyes of the beasts.
 sst
 There is saying of the Arabs that 'sthe soil is like fire and the wind like a flame" mus 1t seems to the unwary traveller caught upon the veldt without water and no hope but to fight for life and gain the too distant ranges. In January the average temperature at Durban is "A; in July, 62; at Pietermaritzburg the January average temperature is T and 55 in July; at Swollen dam the January temperature Is 72 and the July 59. On the veldt the temperature rises in December and January to 100. 105 and 19s; in July it falls to S5, 90 and 95, so the English observers have determined The greater the heat the less water is there to be found. Streams that were gorged in June and July are empty in January and February. The soil cracks with the baking k receives. The short grasses lose all vi- tally and pass away into powder Wind storms sweep over the plain and conceal the trails Duststorms form and swallow up men and animals. These duststorms start upon apparently the same scientific basis as do the western cyclones. They are at first but the size of the cooked hat of a clown, turning laziy upon the level. As they proceed they gain power and size The traveller may see one first as a thin spiral column reaching from the earth to the sky. It leaps fantastically from the ground and descends again. On the fringe of its edge there aIre faint electric sparks. When at full strength it descends upon humans with blinding force, filling the mouth nostrils and ears, choking the throat, expressing with frightful heat. The whirlwind is gone almost as quickly as it came. Sometimes there is death in it's wake, sometimes only a few benumbed, dirty people,
 The veldt is not uninhabited, for Africa is the home of more than thousand different kinds of insects. The ant destroys every thing in the shape of wood, leather or cloth. It will attack disabled men or beasts, swarm upon them and leave them picked to the bone. A fly exists which fatally stings the horses and cattle, and there are creep ing things of hideous shape and more hide ous feeling when upon the person. Only the Hottentot bears their attacks with equa- rimity He calls the veld,t 'karroos," which but means dry or arid. It is he, too, who pushes back the sandy soil and finds be- heath the germs of Nfe that shall give fruit when the rains return. This soil is pervad- ed with the roots and fibers of various plants, which under the influence of water give forth the most gorgeous flowers, yield ing the odors of Arabia. Then come the antelope, the zebras, the quaggas, the gnus, fin countless herds, and after them those who seek them for prey-the Hon. hyena, panther and leopard. Animal life is visible everywhere for short period, and then the heat returns, the death within life. the dust and the silence. From September to April the winds blow from the southeast and are cold and dry. From May to September the northwest winds prevail
 An English officer, now in Mafeking, writing home to relatives, has his letter published in the Morning Leader. He is just in from perilous journey into the veldt. He writes Never was I more lone some in my life, not because of the Boers. who did not discover me, but because of the barrenness of this plain--veldt they call it-that Surrounds poor Mafeking I spoke aloud, and the sound of my voice fright ened me. They say the plain blooms won derfully in the rainy season. That may be. I wish I were away from it. It is so sad it makes the heart ache--a great stretch of fatness, waste, heat, earthly ruin. I would give any ything to see a hill and a tree-anything that was not flat and burned up."
 EMIGRATION AGENTS ARRESTED