Page:The Little Karoo (1925).djvu/10

Introduction ranges) upon which are cultivated vines, tobacco, grain, and especially ostriches, but only in rare patches—where water can be persuaded out of the earth. This water is brackish; for drinking-water the inhabitants have to depend on rain hoarded in tanks; happily there is rain, and happily the rainwater will keep sweet for six months. The inhabitants are chiefly Dutch (some of French descent), with a few English and Scots of the hardier sort. The main thing about the Little Karoo is the distances which separate the hamlets one from another; these distances are magnified by the primitive means of transport. Up to a dozen years ago the whole transport of the Little Karoo was conducted by ox-waggons, Cape carts, donkey-waggons, mules and horses—the ox-waggon being the ship of the Karoo. Anybody who has seen an ox walk can judge the sobriety and moderation of the movement; anybody who hasn’t, can’t.

Cape Town, the capital of South Africa, [vi]