Over this interesting deposit there is a large wood with limestones cropping up above the soil. Upon one of them I saw several loose egg-shaped stones, and others perfectly round, the size of a sparrow’s egg, lying on the ground close to the rock. On stopping to pick them up I found the stone full of them, some half buried, others only holding by a small part of the ball fixed to the rock. Thinking it a very interesting specimen I went to my waggon for a hammer, and secured one of the projecting parts of the rock that had some of these balls imbedded in it, and a dozen of the loose balls, which have been carefully preserved to be examined by a geologist when time will permit, to ascertain if this singular formation is limestone or not, as every portion of this limestone formation is black except where the bones are found, and there it is of a light-brown colour. It is also found in all the dark rocks in the same locality. Extensive tracts of country in South Central Africa have similar rocks containing crystallised globules, which when broken are hollow, which leads me to suppose this rock is not a limestone formation. Dr Lyle, the geologist, at Pretoria, examined the rock with bones in it, and pronounced it a kind of lava impregnated with lime from the bones.
In the neighbourhood of Lydenburg, to the north, are many extensive caves, some extending for nearly a mile underground, that have been formed by the small stream of water that flows through most of them, with beautiful stalactite hanging from their roofs and sides. A short distance to the west of these were the strongholds of the chiefs Secoeme and Mampoer. These mountains are completely riddled with caves, and are places of great strength, and surrounded by many Kaffir kraals, under several petty chiefs. The most noted are Magali, Manpartella, Secocoene, Matebe, Maselaroon (Queen), Mapok, Mamalube, Umsoet, Moripi, Umlindola, Majaje (Queen), Maffafare, Mayaya, and others, numbering many thousands in all. During the Secocoene war, in 1878, I was through that country, travelling up from Pretoria with a detachment of the 80th Regiment, and visited the magnet heights, a range of hills composed entirely of loadstone of highly magnetic power. It is about forty miles to the north-west of Lydenburg.
The area of the present Lydenburg gold-fields may be included within a radius of 100 miles from that town, and contains some of the most magnificent scenery in Africa. Within it are the hot springs, six in number. They are situated among rocks, and close to them is one cold spring; they are becoming known as having very healing properties. The Komati river passing between beautiful mountains is most picturesque, and on the north the Waterfall river and other streams have lovely scenery, with the lofty mountains forming the background. A most charming effect is produced when the clouds are passing along their sides below their summits. It is a pity that a land so lovely and so rich in valuable minerals is not in better hands, where a firm Government would be able to properly develop the country. There are at present a few thousand people living near the various diggings, but many say they are not succeeding. Large sums of money have been expended in machinery, but few companies pay.
Before leaving the Transvaal I wish to call attention again to the white Bushmen, described in the early part of this work, which I omitted, viz. that they are only found in the mountain ranges on the west of the Drakensberg, and in that mountain. They have never been found in the lowlands or in any other part of Africa, and are distinct in form; that is, so remarkably thin, and their legs being more like sticks, without any appearance of a calf, pot-bellied to an enormous extent, with their spine curving in like a bow, and few exceed four feet in height; their colour is yellow white, quite as much so as Europeans brought up in a tropical country. This leads me to conclude they are a separate and distinct race, unless they are part of a tribe that live in Equatorial Africa, called the Akka or Tikku-Tikki race, under the king Munsa, the pigmy race described by Herodotus; but these appear to be of a much darker colour. When travellers state the age of any of these peculiar people it cannot be relied on, for I do not believe there is a black man in Africa who knows his own age. I have seen some exhibited whose age is stated to be twenty; this is mere guess, for it is impossible to tell, when they have no notion themselves whether they are five or fifty.
Chapter Nineteen.
General remarks on the Transvaal.
The two main roads from the Cape Colony to the Transvaal cross the Orange river at Hope Town, and a few miles north of Colesburg, both meeting at Kimberley, the diamond-field centre. Railways are open as far as Kimberley.
From Kimberley to Pretoria by road is 334 miles. The country, the whole distance, is open, and most uninteresting; grass-lands the entire distance, broken here and there with small patches of low mimosa bush. The only portion of the distance less monotonous than the rest is the road that skirts the bank of the Vaal river, as far as Bloemhof, where the pretty wooded banks and broad river relieve the eye from the everlasting rolling plains seen in every direction.