. Matabele land and the Victoria Falls; a naturalist's wanderings in the interior of South Africa . l. Out of twenty-eight oxen we lostonly three, which is considered a very small per-centage. A few of our oxen got into low condition,and we have got seven new ones coming along theroad. We shall try to leave the poor ones at somefarm, or exchange them for fat ones. We arrived here (at Pretoria) on the morningof the 23d of June. It is very different from whatit was in crossing the Drakensberg. There is scarcelyever ice here, and now (the coldest season) thetemperature is perfection—neither hot d
. Matabele land and the Victoria Falls; a naturalist's wanderings in the interior of South Africa . l. Out of twenty-eight oxen we lostonly three, which is considered a very small per-centage. A few of our oxen got into low condition,and we have got seven new ones coming along theroad. We shall try to leave the poor ones at somefarm, or exchange them for fat ones. We arrived here (at Pretoria) on the morningof the 23d of June. It is very different from whatit was in crossing the Drakensberg. There is scarcelyever ice here, and now (the coldest season) thetemperature is perfection—neither hot during theday nor cold at night. There are orange-trees withfruit on them in the gardens, and high hedges ofmonthly roses in flower; there are also a few largetrees (blue gums), something like poplars in mode ofgrowth, but with dark foliage. These are planted 1 The accompanying illustration of the high veldt is from a sketchtaken early in December, when the grass has grown after the summerrains, the country then presenting a very different appearance from itsdried and parched aspect in 3 CO CD I 1 THE HIGH VELDT. 9 here, for the country does not seem to bear muchtimber naturally. There is plenty of scrub on theslopes of the high land as you descend, and I believethere is a large extent of bush country round here,and when we get into, the regular bush, plenty oftimber, I imagine, such as it is ; but this part of
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1800, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectnaturalhistory
