ests this fact. But the
comparative inhospitality of the Boer States--comparative, that is, to
what might be expected from their proximity to the warm Indian
Ocean--demands further explanation. From the Atlantic to the eastern
frontiers of these States no mountain ranges of any elevation
intervene to break the progress of the dry, cold breezes; from the
mouth of the Orange river to the Drakensberg the country is subject
almost uninterruptedly to their influence. But it is not so with the
milder winds from the east. The great screen of the Drakensberg meets
and turns them from end to end of South Africa; no country west of
this range profits by their moisture, whereas the regions east of it
receive it to the full. Hence the almost tropical fertility of Natal
and eastern Cape Colony, with their high rainfall, their luxuriance of
vegetation, indigo, figs, and coffee, and the jungles of cactus and
mimosa which choke their torrid kloofs. Hence, equally, the more
austere veld of the central tableland, the great grass wildernesses,
which are as characteristic of South Africa as the prairies and the
pampas of America, and, like them, became the home and hunting-ground
of a race of martial horsemen. Agriculture, following nature, divides
the veld into three parts, the "High," "Bush," and "Low" Velds; but it
is the first and greatest of these which stamps the central tableland
with its peculiar military characteristics. Almost the whole of the
Orange Free State, and the Transvaal east of the Natal railway, are
High Veld, which may be taken to mean any grassland lying at an
elevation of about 4,000 feet, upon which all vegetation withers in
the dry season, while in spring and summer it is covered with
nutritious herbage. The Low Veld lies properly between longitude 31 deg.
and the tropical eastern coast; while the Bush Veld is usually
understood to mean the country lying between the Pretoria-Delagoa
railway and the Limpopo river. The terms, however, are very loosely
used. The Low Veld differs widely from the High Veld. Upon the former
is rich--almost rank--vegetation and pasture flourishing throughout
the year. But the climate is hot, moist, and unhealthy; and the Boer
farmers, forced by the course of the seasons to drive their flocks
from the sparkling, invigorating air of the uplands to the steamy
lowlands, were wont to take the task in turn amongst themselves, as an
unpleasant one to be performed as seldom as possible.

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