ible, to
remember the lie of the land and how the various hills and slopes are
related to each other. Thinking about it and trying to observe does no
good at all; but some people have an extraordinary instinct by which
they hold the configuration of the ground mapped in their head; judging
not by slow calculation and an effort of the memory, but intuitively and
at once. This instinct is called "an eye for a country," and is a most
valuable gift. Personally, I am very ill equipped with it, which makes
me the more inclined perhaps to admire it in others. It is developed in
the Colonel to an extraordinary degree, and is one of the chief means by
which, however hard beset, he has always been able, so far, to find a
way out. Most nearly of any of our officers his tactics in daring and in
craft resemble the tactics of that prince of scouting officers,
Christian De Wet.

Kronstadt, Lindley, Heilbron, Frankfort, has been our round so far. We
now turn westward along the south of the Vaal. Farm burning goes merrily
on, and our course through the country is marked as in prehistoric ages,
by pillars of smoke by day and fire by night. We usually burn from six
to a dozen farms a day; these being about all that in this
sparsely-inhabited country we encounter. I do not gather that any
special reason or cause is alleged or proved against the farms burnt. If
Boers have used the farm; if the owner is on commando; if the line
within a certain distance has been blown up; or even if there are Boers
in the neighbourhood who persist in fighting--these are some of the
reasons. Of course the people living in the farms have no say in these
matters, and are quite powerless to interfere with the plans of the
fighting Boers. Anyway we find that one reason or other generally covers
pretty nearly every farm we come to, and so to save trouble we burn the
lot without inquiry; unless, indeed, which sometimes happens, some names
are given in before marching in the morning of farms to be spared.

The men belonging to the farm are always away and only the women left.
Of these there are often three or four generations; grandmother, mother,
and family of girls. The boys over thirteen or fourteen are usually
fighting with their papas. The people are disconcertingly like English,
especially the girls and children--fair and big and healthy looking.
These folk we invite out on to the veldt or into the little garden in
front, where they huddle together in their c