Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/200

 174 salted, and packed him in a cask: this is one which I saved from the natives.

There is no domestic animal more useful here than the goat; if I were again coming out I should bring a score of goats from the Cape; they are cheap, have frequently two at a birth, are more easily fed and managed than cows, and are not so liable to accidents. My goat has had four kids in one year.

2nd.—A vernal feel in the air. There is something inexpressibly pleasing in the renovation of nature; every budding flower which this genial climate brings early to our view, I look upon as a messenger to notify the approach of more joyous days. Every thing perceptibly vegetates already, and the pleasure of witnessing the growth of plants on my own land awakens within me a spirit of energetic interest which otherwise would fail. Not to be idle or too much in the ruminating mood, I dropped turnip or rape seed wherever the ashes of a burnt tree were scattered; and I have no doubt that a careful shepherd, having his employer's interest at heart, might in this way, while tending his sheep, be most profitably employed. Mine (when I get him) shall have an axe to cut down brushwood and small trees, which he can afterwards amuse himself by burning. Thus will he clear patches for me, and bring them into fertility and productiveness for the flock under his care. A little here and there