, 1900-05-01
H DREARY VELDT.
SiCkENS HEART OF THE BRIT
ISL SOLDIER.
Tho Desolats Plain of South Africa,
Whore Duststorms swallow Up Men
and Animals and Nature Seems to
BE Dead. v

Veldt is a Dutch word sometimes
spelled without the ct" 1t means an
interested or thinly forested tract of
land. what cowboys would call a
grass country" The higher tracts,
entirely destitute of timber, are called
the high veldt; areas thinly covered
with scrub or bush are called the
bush-veldt. The great veldt of the
T~ransvaal is the HODGE of the Draken-
berg range, whose edge attains a
of SIPS feet.
Mafeking. where Baden-powell is
now fighting for life and English VIC
tory, is in the heart of a veldt upon
which, writes a traveller, there rests
the silence of horror; wher 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 brief rains
fall. Wild flowers blossom, the grasses
turn from brown to green, the native
birds chlrrup shrilly as they iutter
from bush to bush. Then the veldt is
a color picture, a plaque of nature.
upon which the eye 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, and the wind
is scorching at midnight, or raw and
cold, and the mirage of water dances
before the crazed yes of the beasts.
There is a saying of the Arabs that
the soil is like fire and the wind like
a flame Thus 1t seems to the unwary
traveller caught upon the veldt with
out water and nc hope but to fight for
life n gain the o distant ranges.
In January the average temperature at
Durham Is "a: in July 60: at PETER
maritzburg the January average tenn
perature is II and So in July; at Swell
endam the January temperature is ~
and the July SO. On the veldt the tenn
perature rises in December and Janu-
airy to 100, los and 1Os; in July it falls
to So, 80 and 95. So the English OBJ
servers have determined. The greater
the heat the less water is there to be
found. Streams hat were gorglng in
June and July are empty in January
and February. The soil cracks with
the baking 1t receives. The short
grasses lose all vitality and pass
away into powder. Windstorms sweep
over the plain and conceal the trails.
Duststorms form n 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 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 Enthusiastically from the ground
and descends again. On the fringe of
Its edge there are faint electric sparks.
When at full strength it descends upon
humans with binding force, filing the
mouth, nostrtls and ears, choking the
throat, depressing with frightful heat.
The whirlwind is gone almost as quick
as 1t came. Sometimes there is death
III - want AoulcllllcS Ouly d lew De-
numbed, dirty people.
The veldt is not uninhabited, for
Africa is the home of more than 1000
different kinds of insects. The ant de-
stroys everything in the shape OF wood.
leather or cloth. 1t will attack dis
abled men or beasts, swarm upon them
and leave them picked to the bone. A
Ap avtatg r,hInL fo&a11, ~
horses n cattle, and there are creep
Ing things Of hideous shape and more
hideous feeling when upon the person.
Only the Hottentot bears their attacks
with equanimity. He calls the veldt
"karroos." which means dry or arid.
He it is, 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 fibers Of various
plants, which under the influence of
water give forth the most gorgeous
fo,. rs. yielding the odors of Arabia.
The come the antelope, the zebra, the
QuaSl the gnus. in countless herds,
and after them those who seek t EN-
for prey-the lion. hyena, -panther and
leopard. Animal life is visible every
where for a 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, aud are cold and dry. From
May to September the northwest wind
prevails.