As the untutored mind is apt to people the air with
ghosts and goblins, so the Kafir loves to imagine the
waters of the dark stream as inhabited by river gods
and great reptiles. Even sailors find it difficult to
believe that the vast silent ocean is not peopled by
huge sea-serpents and other monsters; but, alas! all
things, and even fancies, die a natural death, and the
sea-serpent has now nearly followed the mermaid.
Zoological science has made it impossible to
“ Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.”
The dangers of these rivers are not from their inhabitants,
hut from their swollen and sudden rush
during the heavy rains. We once narrowly escaped in
driving through one of these augmented streams. The
water rose over the floor of the spider, which floated,
and for a few moments the horses lost their foothold;
hut I shouted to the Kafir boy to use the whip, and we
got through. The Boer farmer I visited would scarcely
believe we had driven through the stream (which was
certainly due to ignorance and not courage on my part),
and on our return he sent two of his sons to the river to
help in an emergency, or to witness a foolhardy Britisher
have at least a dangerous ducking. Of course under such
a challenge the thing had to be again attempted, and
we succeeded in accomplishing our purpose, though with
an unexpressed resolution to try no such experiments
again. The Kafir boy showed no fear, nor did he on
another occasion, when the horses breaking from control
took fright in going down a rocky hill and bolted,
while for several moments I was asking myself whether
it was to be broken limbs or broken neck!
Although, as before remarked, the high veld is an
almost treeless region, and Pretoria by planting has
been made an exception to the somewhat general rule,
its arboriculture is in danger by the arrival of the
Coccid, or so-called “ Australian Bug” (leerya purchasi),
which has ruined many trees and shrubs. Already a
formidable pest in Australia, New Zealand, and North
America, it was first observed in the Botanic Gardens
at Cape Town in 1873, and has since spread over nearly
all South Africa, this scale-insect being now too
frequently seen in the Transvaal. It specially attacks
■the orange-tree, which in the high Transvaal is the
only really eatable fruit' to be obtained, and hence its
arrival and depredations are the more to be regretted.
This Coccid* in time may prove as serious a trouble
to the arboriculturist as the prevalent lung-disease
already is to the cattle-farmer and the horse-keeper.
Man’s development of this country is a long struggle
with the different forces and agents of Nature; if his
cattle survive the sickness in the Iransvaal they will
not conquer the little Tsetse-fly (Glossina morsitccns) of
the interior ; heavy rains and floods destroy his crops,
and the scale-insect attacks his trees; in the rich lowlands,
where the most luxuriant crops can be produced,
malarial fever dwells ; in the townships of the healthy
highlands defective drainage is attended by malignant
typhoid epidemic. Man’s greatest happiness is living
in conformity with Nature’s laws, his greatest intellectual
achievement has been in conquering and utilizing
her forces. Dynamite is a progressive power in the
Transvaal, and is an invincible force in hewing the
railway-track through the quartzite rocks, constructing
roads across adamantine defiles, or blasting the gold-
bearing reefs. The boom of its explosion is a sound
often heard, always denoting industrial enterprise ; and
the word dynamite had a strange significance in my
ears in this land as I observed its destructive force
utilized for constructive purposes, and remembered its
felonious notoriety in London a few years previously.
* To those who would consult the literature relating to this insect, its
life-history, and the proposed preventive measures against its attacks, maybe
recommended the following works :a r Report of Prof. 0. V. Rilev, Entomologist
of U.S.A., for 1886,’ Washington, pp. 466-492 ;J |‘ Insects Noxious
to Agriculture in New Zealand. The Scale Insects (Coccididce),’ by W. M.
Marshall, 1887;—Report by Mr. Roland Trimen—Government Notice (Blue
Book) No. 113, 1877 ;—and lastly, the excellent resumi on the subject by
Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod in her ‘ Injurious Farm and Fruit Insects of
South Africa.’