between the stream and the aqueduct leading to Klerksdorp. Close beside us were two other waggons belonging to a Transvaal “transport-driver,” who came to have a talk with us; and as we were taking a cup of coffee, he joined us at our repast. He told us that to the best of his belief the goods he was conveying included casks of French wine and brandy, jars of hollands, boxes of English biscuits, besides a variety of pickaxes, shovels, and other implements. Altogether his load weighed nearer six tons than five. The waggons had been loaded in the diamond-fields, and the driver’s business was to take them to the gold-diggings. He informed us that, after paying all his expenses, he hoped to clear 140l. by this journey; so that we inferred that, including the dues paid for unlading at Port Elizabeth, the total cost of the transport of these goods thence to Pilgrim’s Rest, in the Lydenburg district, could not be less than 300l. It is true that the distance between the two places, viâ Hope Town, Kimberley, Christiana, Klerksdorp, Potchefstroom, Pretoria, and Middleberg, can scarcely be less than 1100 miles; but even for this the charge seems very exorbitant. Generally speaking, the transport-drivers no doubt make a good thing of their business; and it would seem to be only in exceptionally bad seasons, or when winter snow-storms on the paroo plains prove fatal to their oxen, that they ever suffer any serious loss.
Next morning we quitted Klerksdorp, proceeding towards the Estherspruit. It had not rained for
