The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-04-21

ears dulled by the pounding din of un
derground railways, tranction engines
bells, and other inventions of civiliga
ion. More, more or less in his print
tive state is the child of the veldt
From his infancy the ways of birds
and beasts have been revealed to him
as the leaves of a book, opening page
by page, till the story of the land Is
revealed, He creeps with naked fee
among the big bowderh Of the kopjes
or krantzes like the Cape panther it.
self; he waits with patience that is
abnormal to us for his opportunity oil
accommodating; he congresses his
body into the smallest possible dimen-
sions in way that Highland deer
stalker might we'll envy; he initiates
| the stillnesh of the rock lizard, and is
keeping every miscle taut in watchful
energy. He knows that "fontein' to
which the bush doves gather in the
| early morning to drink, and should 1t
| happen that a foraging or scouting
party is there and the bush doves
swoop aside in affrighted crowds he is
on the alert and takes the hint. There
is reason to be doubly cautious now.
Should the smoke Of a campfire be
permitted incautiously to arise, his
| eyes will first discern it, and separ-
ate it, hnall though it be, from the
morning mist that is climbing round
| the hillside. Should scout Indulge
in the strong but withal frgrant and
pleasant Boer "'baccy," the native
will detect it from affair." should the
wind carry 1t down the kloof. He
knows, too, all the alarm notes of bird
or beast. Yonder, In the kopje or
krantz, he hears the sharp alarm note
of dasse, or rock rabbit, or down in
the recesses Of a kloof he notes the
cessation, huddenly, of two louris an
swering or challenging one another
Or he knows. that such and such a
cliff is the haunt of the rock
"spreeuw," or starting. Why do they
leave their haunts and go elsewhere?
Even the balloons among the Lodges
of the hill may give their toesin of
alarm, not the rating they give the
Cape leopard that may be creeping
after one Of the unwary and incauti-
Gus youngsters, but something quite
different, at the sight of man. The
vultures, too, may have their eyries in
the krantzes, and give signs of being
disturbed; or, far away in the clear
swinging in great lazy circles almost
out of sight ION the Garage of their
wings" may at last descend upon a
certain spot for their obscene feast.
But they can tell a story to a watchful
observer, who, like the native, will
guess from their very flight the pre-
sence or obsence Of man, as the case
may be. Then in the rhinoster bush
on the hillside, scolding ''knorhaan"
may spring up with loud, discordant
cry heard far and near What does
this mean? 1t may be a jackal re-
turning from it's midnight prowl, or it
may be that arch-enemy man. Or a
"clumpjie" Of guinea fowl may have
started up from the river side sud-
denly, where they had been roosting.
Their very flight will tell what has
disturbed them and made them de-
part. So, too, the Kaff1r crane, the
barrier hawk. sitting motionless in the
misty morning on some tall bush. will
each in their way aid the backwoods- !
mans searchf who will draw his
omens from bird and beast alike.
Who will deny that the lore of the
veldt and the cunning of the primitive
are useful sometimes? We
who have scarcely bowling acqualnt-
ance with the dawn know very little. |
The child of the vefdt knows much |
Then, of course, the native has local
We may be trying to
guess what is on the other side Of
mex or kopje, but the native knows
what is there. Has he not, as a wan
dering herd, minding the flocks of
merino sheep or Angora goats, spent |
hours in the sunshine on the very slope |
you wish to know about, grooming out |
the while some old Kaffir refrain or |
wooden pipe? He must |
know every stone, cave and hollow |
that is there.
Then these is the art of "spooring," |
or tracking. The welt in South Africa,
in dry spells, looks, and really is, hard |
and almost adamantine. Seldom will |
a soft place appear for the foot of man |
or beast to leave its imprint. In such |
a country "Red Rube," of Exmoor
fame, would be hopelessy out of it,
and be no better or worse than the |
most purblind child of civilization, al
though he might have been able always
to "slot" and harbor his deer in Hor-
ner woods. Not so the South African
native, who, indeed. has taught the
Beers themselves much of their savage |
and crafty ways. Ffe will
'ead the brown surface of the veldt as
easily as an open book. Let him quar-
.er the ground and give him time, and
lie will soon tell you whether men or
1orses have gone up yonder gorge or
tloof. If they have, indeed, passed
hat way, he will go so far as to make
shrew guess how many of them were
ind how long it was since they went
little bit Of half dry clay or mud
will tell him this, or, perhaps, the half
,rulsed blades of grass, off which the
lew has been brushed He will note,
90, the difference between the British
,oot and the Boer veldt schoen, be-
ween the shod and the unshot pony,
md tell exactly the nails and custom
# the shoeng. All will be patient and
'isible to this sleuthhound of the veldt.
f he scouts there will be- little danger
or himself personally. He is too wide
wake, and, besides, gun would be
f little real use to him.
There is yet another way, closed to
he European scout, by which the Kaf-
r native especially can pick up infor
nd INV q ell