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MAKING MEAT TENDER.

259

minerals, and especially coffee, were so plentiful, and so pure that their knobkerries and their beads were generally made from it.

It is a very singular fact that the tenderness of meat, which depends among other things on the amount of time it has been kept, is greatly affected by electricity. The effect of a thunderstorm upon animal food is well known. It turns milk sour and meat bad. A moderate charge of electricity passed through freshly-killed meat is said to make it instantly fit for cooking. The same effect is produced at the Cape and elsewhere by placing it in contact with certain plants. In the Transvaal I have found that freshly-killed meat will become fit for eating in a few hours by being wrapped up in fig-leaves.

CHAPTER XXVII.

PILGRIMS' REST.

WE passed a night at Muller's Farm, a very fine estate, about ten miles this side of Pilgrims' Rest. There was an ugly story about some liquor which had been left during the war at a store near this.

Ill-natured persons said that it was poisoned and left as a temptation to the native rebels. I believe the truth to have been that the word poison which was written on the bottles was a hoax to prevent the contents being consumed by the Volunteers and Free Lances, who were crossing the country. The bottles are said to have been broken by a gentleman, who felt that some serious evil might result.

I was told that Van Muller was the owner of several farms at Pilgrims' Rest. He sold one for 257. to a Mr. Strubos, who, on finding gold, sold it for 62407.

Van Muller complained very much of the injury that was being done to him by the watercourses which were being dug across his lands in order to lead water to the gold diggings.

An enactment had been passed to include a certain area of country within the gold-bearing region, giving very extensive powers over the properties lying within it to certain appointed commissioners. Amongst these was the right to give sanction for watercourses to be dug to lead water to the mines. These furrows were cut along the hill sides, in some instances for miles, following carefully the curves of the mountain, and having regard to contour. They were frequently executed by

XXVII.] THE "CRYING" AND THE “BLYTH."

261

self-taught engineers, and without theodolites or instruments, yet such was the exactness in gradual depression that the best instructed engineers could hardly have done better.

The proprietors of the lands have not the power of preventing these aqueducts being made; but a certain proportion of the charges for the right of digging is accorded to them, which gives them a very handsome remuneration, and I do not believe that Muller had, in reality, much cause of complaint.

The descent into the valley from the upper plateau is the most precipitous that I have yet witnessed for a wheeled carriage; indeed, no one who had not seen a waggon go down could believe it practicable.

We saw the mines of Pilgrims' Rest for hours before we reached them. The tents appeared like dots of white on the landscape. As we approached near the opposite side of the mountain it exactly represented an ant's nest, the busy workers creeping backwards and forwards in the golden sand.

We were kindly received by Mr. Bancroft, the most considerable merchant at the mines, and put up, much I am afraid to his own inconvenience.

Pilgrims' Rest is situated on a spur of the Drakensberg range, about 4000 feet above the sea, and not far from its eastern edge, where there is a steep descent into the lower country, which is little above the sea-level. It stands between two rivers, the "Crying" and the "Blyth" river. These are singular names, and have originated in the following circumstance: On the first arrival of the pioneers, they left their families and went below the mountain to seek a new country. Not returning for a considerable time, the wives followed on their track; on reaching the edge of the mountain, however, they were afraid to descend, and set to crying, which gave the name to the river. Near to Mac-Mac, regaining courage, they tried to go down by another path, more towards the north. At the northern river they met their husbands returning, which

made them happy, and the second river received the name of the "Blyth." It is there that the gold diggings called Pilgrims' Rest" are situated. If at some future day an antiquary sets to investigating the names of these places, his task will be puzzling. No doubt there is not a village or hill in England the name of which has not originated from the doings of our forefathers. The men are forgotten, but the names of the places called after them, or after their exploits, remain, like fossils-marks of a state of society which has passed away for ever.

On the following morning, under the guidance of Mr.. Gunn, the Commissioner, we were conducted for some miles through the diggings. They showed too clearly the arduous nature of the work, as well as its cruel uncertainty. The gold is found in hollow pockets, beneath the rocks, into which it has probably been washed down, from some high level, out of the interior of the mountain. But these pockets are not only covered over by the clayey soil, but by stupendous rocks and boulders, some of them far more than half the size of a moderately sized room.

To remove these, therefore, is an absolute necessity. How and by what means they are to be rolled away is the problem. The general method appeared to be, to dig a large hole below the rock, and then with levers and crowbars to cause the huge stone to roll into the newly excavated hollow. This completed, a careful search is made by digging down to the surface of the solid rock. The search is rewarded, generally indifferently, though occasionally magnificently.

At my visit Mr. Hoskyth was considered the most fortunate miner; he had arrived with a very small purse, but was said to be realising 3007. per week.

I never saw Kafirs work so hard as they did at these mines. Their wages appeared not at all extravagant for their labour; as they were rated at not more than twenty-five shillings per

XXVII.]

THE MISSING LINCH-PIN.

263

month, exclusive of their rations. The reason that their wages are low is, that immediately below the highlands on which the gold diggings are situated, there are countless numbers of natives of various races, so that the supply of labour is inexhaustible and continuous.

On the following morning, when we intended to have continued our journey to Spitskop, one of our horses had been let out of the stable and was not to be found. The linch-pin also, and the cover of the axle, had been removed, and the yokes of our oxen had been taken away. During the night we had heard a serenade by the diggers played upon tin pots, kettles, and banjos; and the boy who slept under our waggon said he saw the linchpin being removed by this party, but he would not move lest he should be thrashed. I suspect that the linch-pin was removed at the instigation of the blacksmith, as he was the only person able to repair the damage, and seemed by no means surprised when informed of it. His charge for repairing it was 11. 58.

On leaving, Mr. Sheppeard insisted on presenting me with a specimen of gold, and on my firmly declining to accept it, he allowed me to purchase a beautiful specimen of virgin-ore of the weight of one ounce.

I then returned to Pretoria. In the interim, progress had been made in the cantonment, which evidenced the unremitting care of Colonel Montgomery. Watercourses had been cut, trees planted, a bathing house erected for the troops, wooden bedsteads made for the sick in large numbers, and a new hospital built. The houses had been partially covered in, and many other works had been carried out with zeal and energy.

I now used my best endeavours to complete the barracks for the soldiers of the 1-13th Regiment, in which the men gave immense assistance, both in levelling the ground, in making the bricks, in dressing the corner stones, in carpenter's work, and in preparing the thatching. It was now that the advantages