The St. Mary banner., 1901-08-10
THE BUSH YELDT TREK.
WHY THE FUGITIVE BoERs SEEK
AN ASYLUM THERE.

| X IS Almost Impossible TO move Large
Bodies OF Men in That Part Of Tbs
Transvaai-eritish Will Have Trouble in
Following Them.
| IlA news that fugitive bodies of Beers
are trekking 1nward the bush veldt has
somewhat haN0v been assumed to indi-
cate that, finding themselves driven from
pillar to post, IT, popuate burghers are
seeking last 1~opstr.:ken asylum.
The bush velat is term applied
loosely to a long strip of wooded country
which runs roughly east by west in a
! line fifty miles to the north of Pretoria.
1t lies somewhat lower than the sur
| rounding country, and for this reason
maintains throughout the year a warm
| mean temperature.
People at home have even yet failed to
grasp the immensity of the Transvaal
They seem to think that because it is all
called by one name it is all of one geo
graphical and climatic character. The
truth is that one part of the Transvaal
differs from another just about as much
as California does from the state of New
York.
There are never frosts in the bush
veldt, though on the high tablelands
about Middleburg and Belfast. not thirty
miles away, night frosts are both fire.
quent and bitter in the winter season.
Similarly. the rainfall in the bush veldt
is inches higher than on the plains.
In the depths of winter. when the
grass on the veldt is brown. parched and
inedlole, it is green and fresh and sue
culent in the bush country. For this
H. l..
on the plains when his animals can no
longer find grazing there, and tricks la
boriously off in search of pastures new
Generally he takes his entire household
with him,wife, children and furniture,
the family lares and penates being heaped
unfortunately in enormous trek
wagons.
This annual trek is sight to be seen
and never forgotten. 1t beats Scotch
fitting on an Irish eviction into fits.
The male members of the family ride OH
horseback, the women and children sit
on the wagons, and all gesticulate wildly.
screaming curse. at the kaffirs and oxen
at the highest pitch of their voices.
Sometimes the trek occupies fortnight,
IT there is long way to go; and every
night the oxen are outspanned and
camp is formed for the night Eight to
twelve miles day is the average rate of
progression.
The land in the bush veldt is not taken
up in the same way as elsewhere; the
burgher simply tricks on till he finds
place which suits him and stops there |
He does not build house, but lives en-
tirely in his wagons-sometmes with a
huge sail thrown over to form a tent |
Some of the richer farmers have spec
ial wagons for this annual picnic-enor-
nous numbering things they are, which
thirty oxen strain to move.
From April till October life in the
bush veldt is pleasant and healthy
enough. In October it begins to get
warm, and by the middle Of November
the heat is unbearable. Then fever comes,
and the knowing burgher returns to
health and the spring grass on the plains.
In the ordinary. way trekking to the
bush veldt does not commence till May,
but there is no reason why it should not
begin in April. As rule, there is still
grass through April to keep the
beasts fat and so long as he is not COM
PEELED to move the Boer is the incarna-
ton of laziness.
Therefore, it will be seen that, what
ever else the bodies of Beers now re-
ported to be trekking to the bush veldt
are doing, they are assurcdly not run
ming their heads blindly into a death
trap. 1t has been stated repeatedly by
papers which ought to know better that
those who seek asylum in the bush
must necessarily perish of fever
This is nonsense. The ordinary Boer is
. great deal more afraid of fever than he
is of the Lee-Enheld ri1e-especially if
he has good horse under him.
The Beers are going to the bush veldt
because they know that they may now
10 so with safety. They will stay there
ust so long as they can with impunity-
. G., on the plains. Whether we can dis
odge them earlier remains to be seen.
The bush veldt is almost impossible
country to move large bodies of men in,
md it is for the most part unknown.
We have had maps-pretty bad ones,
oo-of the rest of the Transvaal, but we
,ave none of the bush country.-London
Express.