Along the whole line from Belmont northwards and to some distance southwards the telegraph lines had been cut by the Boers.  Not content with severing the wires here and there, they had cut down every post for miles along the railway.  I wondered what the grinning Kaffirs thought of such a spectacle; here were the white men, the pioneers of enlightenment, engaged in cutting each other’s throats and destroying the outward signs of their civilisation!  Perhaps it is worth mentioning that native opinion in Cape Colony has, as far as can be judged from the native journal Imvo, been decidedly against us in the present war.  This is a factor which must be reckoned with as regards the question whether or no blacks shall be armed and permitted to share in the fighting.  Of course it seems at first sight perfectly fair to give the Zulus or Basutos the means of defending themselves from cattle-raiding Boers, but if you once arm a savage there is a very real danger of his getting out of control, and Zulus might make incursions into the Free State or Basutos into Cape Colony.  From such things may we be preserved!  There is an intensely strong feeling amongst colonial Englishmen as well as Dutchmen—­much more intense than anything we feel at home—­against the bringing of natives into a quarrel between white men.

The train soon traverses the distance between Belmont and Graspan.  None can wish to linger on this journey, for the surrounding region is dreary and forbidding.  The everlasting kopje crops up here and there, looking like—­what in fact it is—­a mere vast heap of boulders and stones from which the earth has been dislodged by the constant attrition of wind and rain.  The hillocks in the Graspan district are by no means lofty—­none of them seemed to get beyond a few hundred feet—­but beyond Modder River the big kopje on the right which was seamed with Boer trenches must be, I should guess, well over six hundred feet from the plain.  A large proportion of the kopjes in this part of the country have absolutely flat tops—­why, I cannot imagine—­and the whole appearance of the country suggests at once the former bed of an ocean. A propos of geology, I once in camp came across a sergeant who was surrounded by a little band of privates, deeply interested in his scientific remarks, which began as follows:  “Now, some considerable time before the Flood, Table Mountain was at the bottom of the sea, for sea shells are found there at the present day, etc.”  It is quite a mistake to suppose that the soldier cares for none of these things.  As a “Tommy” myself I had some unique opportunities of learning what they talked about and how they talked, and certainly the subjects discussed sometimes covered a very big field.  I have heard a heated discussion as to the position of the port of Hamburg, and was finally called on to decide as arbitrator whether this was a Dutch or German town.  Theological discussions were also by no means infrequent.  One of my comrades insisted