Delagoa
line, and here we found a wee bit of river scenery almost rivalling
the beauty of the stream that has given to Lynmouth its world-wide
fame. At this little frequented place two rivers meet, which even in
the driest part of the dry season are still real rivers, and would
both make superb trout streams, if once properly stocked, as many a
river at home has been.

But just a little farther on we found scenery immeasurably more grand
than anything we had ever seen before. The Dutch name of this
astounding place is Kaapsche Hoop, which seems reminiscent of "The
Cape of Good Hope," though it lies prodigiously far from any sea. It
apparently owes its sanguine name to the fact that hereabouts the
earliest discoveries of gold in the Transvaal were made. But it is
also popularly called "The Devil's Kantoor," just as in the Valley of
Rocks at Lynton we have "The Devil's Cheesering," and other
possessions of the same sable owner. This African marvel is, however,
much more than a mere valley of rocks, and it bids absolute defiance
to my ripest descriptive powers. It is a vast area covered with rocks
so grotesquely shaped and utterly fantastic as would have satisfied
the artistic taste, and would have yielded fresh inspiration to the
soul of a Gustave Dore. The rocks are evidently all igneous and
volcanic, but often stand apart in separate columns, and sometimes
bear a striking resemblance to enormous beasts or images that might
once have served for Oriental idols.

Indeed, looked at by the bewitching but deceptive light of the moon,
the whole place lends itself supremely well to every man's individual
fancy, and even my unimaginative mind could easily have brought itself
to see here a once majestic antediluvian city with its palaces and
temples, but now wrecked and ruined by manifold upheavals of nature,
and worn into rarest mockeries of its ancient splendours by the wild
storms of many a millennium.

What I did certainly see, however, among those rocks were sundry
roughly constructed shelters for snipers, who were therefrom to have
picked off our men and horses as they crossed the adjacent drift.
Terrible havoc might have been wrought in the ranks of the Guards'
Brigade, without apparently the loss of a single Transvaaler's life,
but there is no citadel under the sun the Boers just then had heart
enough to hold.

Immediately adjoining this unique city of rocks is a stupendous cliff
from which, our best travelled offi