Continuing my journey three days later, I paid a visit to the Harm Saltlake, where some Boers contrive to make a miserable livelihood by hunting and by selling salt.
The Mackenzie and the Livingstone salt-pans lay in the next day’s route, and after a drive of some hours over marshy soil, we came to a pond encircled by tall sedge, in the middle of which there seemed to be a rock-pool; as far as I know, it is the only one of the kind on the plain between the Harts and Molapo. As we approached we were almost deafened by the chorus of bird-cries that rose from its banks. We put up for the night in two deserted huts that had belonged to some Dutch hunters, who had left the tokens of their calling behind them in a great accumulation of the bones of the gnus and antelopes they had killed. I was sorry that there was no boat at hand in which I could make an investigation of the bottom of the pond. Besides the numerous swamp-birds and water-fowl, there was a great variety of finches in the sedge; and before night closed in, it was a remarkable sight to see the thousands of swallows that came back from their day’s flight across the boundless plains.
Crossing the Harts River on the 9th, we found it so swollen by the rain that the transit was somewhat dangerous, but we arrived safely at Mamusa on the next day, and at Houmansvley on the day after. Mr. Houman, the resident proprietor, gave me a courteous welcome, and I stayed with him until the 14th, when I continued my way south, till I came to Hallwater Farm, where there were a good many Korannas.
NIGHT JOURNEY.
The nearer I approached the diamond-fields, the more disheartened and out of spirits I felt. I had not 2l. in my possession, and I owed Mr. Jensen 120l., a sum considerably more than I could realize by the sale of my waggon and team, which would fetch much less here than they would if I could have sold them in the Transvaal.
While I was in Christiana I was pleased to make the acquaintance of a trader named Sanders, who had been travelling in the tropical parts of the west coast.
On my way down the Vaal valley I had another attack of fever, which came on so violently, that when I arrived at Kimberley on the 26th, I was thoroughly ill.
CHAPTER XVI.
LAST VISIT TO THE DIAMOND FIELDS.
Resuming medical practice—My menagerie at Bultfontein—Exhibition at Kimberley—Visit to Wessel’s Farm—Bushmen’s carvings—Hunting hyænas and earth-pigs—The native question in South Africa—War in Cape Colony and Griqualand West—Major Lanyon and Colonel Warren—Departure for the coast.