Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/281

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Barberton.—To leave the high veld as seen around Pretoria and Johannesburg, respectively 4500 ft. and 5600 ft. above sea-level, and to travel to Barberton with its altitude of only 3000 ft., backed by thickly wooded hills, is a great treat for a naturalist. Formerly, as when I first visited the State, the journey consisted of a long and weary coach-ride, but in 1895 I covered the distance in twenty-four hours, thanks to a combination of rail and coach, though long since then the passenger travels the whole distance by rail. The scenery becomes very fine after the descent is made into the Crocodile River valley, but this grand stream now contains, or did at the time of my visit, comparatively few fish. The reason is soon told. During the construction of the railway, which in parts almost follows the course of the river, it was found cheaper to give the Kafirs a couple of dynamite cartridges, with which they could obtain a fish diet, than to supply them with the usual allowance of "mealies." The completion of this railway was a very slow process, and the river thus became almost depopulated. The contractor who gave me this information, and who had himself constructed that part of the line, related an instance of Kafir ignorance or stupidity in using these cartridges. An individual, fresh to the work, lighted the fuse of both cartridges, one of which he held in his hand, while he watched the effect of the other he had thrown in the water, with a result that is unnecessary to describe. But it will be long before the Crocodile River is again well stocked with fish; the use of the dynamite cartridge is somewhat prevalent in Transvaal rivers, and if the vast railway enterprise only now commencing in Africa is conducted on similar lines, ichthyologists will soon have to record a vast diminution in specimens, if not in species.

At Crocodile Poort, where rail was exchanged for coach, and a six or seven hours' drive to Barberton was then a necessity, a