The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1900-04-05

Z
veldt Is Dutch word sometimes
spelled without the final st." 1t means
an interested tract Of land. what cow
boys would call "grass country" says
the Chicago Times Herald. The high
er tracts. entirely destitute of timber,
are called the hige veldt: areas thinly
covered with scrub or bush are known
as bushveldt. The great veldt of ths
Iransvaai rs the aooge OF the Draken-
berg. range. whose edge attains he.gnt
at the summit, named Mauch. of S,i25
feet.
Portions Of Nevada. especially some
OF the areas lying north of the Central
racine railroad; great stretches IN the
Shoshone country and other stretches
about the Pocatello reservation, as we'll
as strips In Texas, are somewhat SINH
lar In character to the yeldts of the
orang~Free State and the Transyaal,
although Ii is very doubtful IL the sun
beats down upon them with the saw
agery IL exercises where Boer and Bril-
ton now face each other. Mafeking,
where Baden Powell is now fighting for
life and English victory, Is in the heart
OF veldt upon which," writes a trav-
elder, There rests the silence of horror:
where there is always the desolation OF
drought 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 bios
som, the grasses turn from gray and
brown to green, and native birds CHR
rup shrilly as they fiutter from bush TO
bush. Then the veldt is a color-pic-
ture, plaque of nature, upon which
the eve settles for rest. So brief are
these periods. though, that men forget
them and remember but the terror of
the parched veldt when the clouds come
no more, the wind in scorching at mid
night or raw and cold. and the mirage
of water dances before the crazed eyes
OF the beasts.
There is a saying OF the Arabs that
the soil Is like fire and the wind like
fame" Thus IL 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
Durham is "A; in July, g.: at Pieter-
martzburg the January average tenn
perature is IL and So in July: at Swell
lendam the January, temperature is y
and the July SO. On the veldt the tent
perature rises i'm December and jan
uary 10 100, 10o and los; In July II falls
TO s5. 80 and 95. So the English obser-
vers have determined. The greater the
heat the less water Is thereto be found.
Streams that We're gorged In June and
July are empty in January and Feb
ruary. The soil cracks with the bak-
ing IL receives. The short grasses lose
all vitality and pass away into pow
der.
Windstorms sweep over the plain and
conceal the trails. Duststorms form
and swallow up men and animals.
These duststorms start upon apparent
ly the same scientific bas as do the
western cyclones. They are at first but
the size of a cooked hat OF a clown,
turning lazily 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. 1t leaps fantastically from
the ground and descends again. on
the fringe of its edge there are. faint
electric sparks. When at full strength
ii descends upon humans with binding
force, filling the mouth, nostrils and
ears, choking the throat. expressing
with frightful heat. The whirlwind is
gone almost as quickly as IL came.
sometimes there is death In it's wake.
sometimes only a few benumbed, dirty
people.
The veldt Is not uninhabited, for Afri-
ca is the home of more than a thousand
different kinds of insects. The ant de-
stroys everything In the shape of wood,
leather or cloth. IL Will attack dis
abled men or beasts. swarm upon them
and leave them picked to the bone. A
fly exists which fatally stings horses
and cattle, and there are creeping
things Of hideous shape and more hid
eous feeling when upon the person.
Only the Hottentot bears their attacks
with equanimity. He calls the veldt
"karroos," which but means dry or
arid. II is he. too. who pushes back the
sandy soil and finds beneath the germs
OF life that shall give fruit when the
rains return. This soil is pervaded
with the roots and ffbres of various
plants, which. under the influence OF
water give forth the most gorgeous
flowers, yielding the odors OF Arabia.
Then come the antelope. the zebras. the
quaggas. the gnus in countless herds.
and after them those who seek them
for prey-the lion. hycna, panther and
leopard. Animal life Is Wis BILE every
where 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