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Show BOUTM AFRICAN HORSES. T1tr KndsrMM It lletaaraaMe Storry Nat- in tMk At. One or the first things that strike the wanderer In the great expanses of the southern hemlaphere Is the atrength and endurance of the horses, aaya South Africa. He notes that, though to look at they are the sorriest sorri-est scrags he eer et eyea on, yet they i appear to be possessed of a power of " getting over the ground that Is little sAort of miraculous, and so astonish- inc la Ita persistence as to seem auto- malic A striking Instsnce came under un-der my nollce only a few daya after landing In Cape Town. In 18CJ. I waa sitting one Saturday afternoon on the stoop of Park's hotel, which occupied the corner of Addorley and Strand ltreeta, when a dual-covered horseman - slopped and dismounted, Ills horse was taken to the alablea. and In the course of conversation In the bar I learned that he waa a member of the legislative assembly for an up-country district. There was no railway communication com-munication with the Interior In those days, and be had ridden In from his home, at Coleaberg, In lees thsn six daya, having started the previous Monday. Mon-day. Now, Coleaberg Is more than 500 rolls from Cape Town, and the country coun-try Is very rough going, much of It being heavy and other parts tery mountainous. No English-bred boras, fed according to English methods, could have accomplished such a rids aa this, more especially when wt consider con-sider the temperature of tba Cap Colony. Col-ony. I went to look at the animal on which the Journey had been performed and found It to be a little roan scblm-roel, scblm-roel, barely fourteen handa, and apparently ap-parently aa fresh aa paint. Another very remarkable ride that came under my notice waa performed by a Doer who lived a few miles from Oreytown, to Natal. Ills wife was taken 111, and a particular medicine, not to be obtained ob-tained In Oreytown, was Imperative. Bo la the early hours of the eight he started for Marltiburs, flfty-flvs milM distant, through an extremely hilly country, and waa back on hla farm In eliteYtv hours The remarkable thing ia this Instance was that the Itoer weighed over seventeen stone. In my own experience many Instances of the wonderful slaying powers of African horses have occurred To mention one In UCS I had been appointed honorable honora-ble secretary for the first athletic sports held In lha Umbotl country of Natal. Tbey were to be held In Oreytown Orey-town on boxing day, which fell on a Monday, All preparations, entries, etc., were concluded early In December, when, I received an urgent request to go to the Transvaal lo look after a friend who waa lying very 111 In bis wagon with no attendants but a couple of raw Kaffirs. I rode as hard as 1 could, and found him unions the kep-Jes kep-Jes of the Drakenberg, between Lydon-berg Lydon-berg and Wakkersthoora.very bad with fever, which he had contracted somewhere some-where Iq the low country to tho northwest north-west I tended him for some days, until un-til be was clearly out of danger, and then suddenly remembered that I had to be In Oreytown on Monday morning. morn-ing. I was then sitting on tho wagon box, drinking my nurnlng coffee, at S a. m. Saturday morning Orewtown waa 220 miles away, but I waa at my poat there at 10 a. m. and In addition took a second prise, both In the running run-ning and Jumping competitions. |