The colony of Natal; an official illustrated handbook and railway guide . dients,now booms along without apparent effort. The view fromthe carriage windows, though no longer mountainous, isb)- no means lacking in attraction. In summer the grass,green as emerald, clothes every hill and vale. In winter apeculiar purple flush tones it, until in places the wholecountry glows like a transformation scene. The passingshadow of a great cloud, a gathering storm on the distanthorizon, and the bright full sunshine, all tend to impart adelightful sensation of freedom and luxury. It is hard tobelieve in th
The colony of Natal; an official illustrated handbook and railway guide . dients,now booms along without apparent effort. The view fromthe carriage windows, though no longer mountainous, isb)- no means lacking in attraction. In summer the grass,green as emerald, clothes every hill and vale. In winter apeculiar purple flush tones it, until in places the wholecountry glows like a transformation scene. The passingshadow of a great cloud, a gathering storm on the distanthorizon, and the bright full sunshine, all tend to impart adelightful sensation of freedom and luxury. It is hard tobelieve in the existence even of crowded cities and toilingmillions. The old world with its trodden ways seems farremoved, and the thought natiu-alh rises of the ccstacy thatwould fill the hearts of those whose lives are cast in grimy 261 cities, could thc\- be suddenly placed in this land ofperpetual sunshine. Now and again the distant outline of a range of hillsdawns on the sight, as the train, like a ship, passes over thebroad rolling surface. At rare intervals, long caravans of. 4NCSBURG. wagons, each drawn by sixteen to eighteen oxen, pace slowlyacross the vievv^ A solitary horseman, like a tiny speck, canbe seen for a moment, and then lost; while a group of deer,with wondering eyes, stand knee-deep in tangle, gazing interror, and then with a sudden panic, wheel off in longbounds to some sheltering ravine. In the old days, whenrailwa\-s were unknown in South Africa, the journey fromDurban to Pretoria, which can now be accomplished in about 262 twenty-seven hours, was a matter of months : then the traveller really endured the hardships incidental to a journey through the wilds, and the stories of adventure and hair-breadth escapes from ravenous beasts Who made night hideous with hoarse bellowings were no idle tales. Later on, when Johannesburg becameestablished, post carts, with frequent relays of horses,reduced the time between the railway terminus in Nataland the Fields, to a few days
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidcolonyofnata, bookyear1895
