The area of the present Lydenburg gold-fields may be included within a radius of 100 miles from that town, and contains some of the most magnificent scenery in Africa. Within it are the hot springs, six in number. They are situated among rocks, and close to them is one cold spring; they are becoming known as having very healing properties. The Komati river passing between beautiful mountains is most picturesque, and on the north the Waterfall river and other streams have lovely scenery, with the lofty mountains forming the background. A most charming effect is produced when the clouds are passing along their sides below their summits. It is a pity that a land so lovely and so rich in valuable minerals is not in better hands, where a firm Government would be able to properly develop the country. There are at present a few thousand people living near the various diggings, but many say they are not succeeding. Large sums of money have been expended in machinery, but few companies pay. Before leaving the Transvaal I wish to call attention again to the white Bushmen, described in the early part of this work, which I omitted, viz. that they are only found in the mountain ranges on the west of the Drakensberg, and in that mountain. They have never been found in the lowlands or in any other part of Africa, and are distinct in form; that is, so remarkably thin, and their legs being more like sticks, without any appearance of a calf, pot-bellied to an enormous extent, with their spine curving in like a bow, and few exceed four feet in height; their colour is yellow white, quite as much so as Europeans brought up in a tropical country. This leads me to conclude they are a separate and distinct race, unless they are part of a tribe that live in Equatorial Africa, called the Akka or Tikku-Tikki race, under the king Munsa, the pigmy race described by Herodotus; but these appear to be of a much darker colour. When travellers state the age of any of these peculiar people it cannot be relied on, for I do not believe there is a black man in Africa who knows his own age. I have seen some exhibited whose age is stated to be twenty; this is mere guess, for it is impossible to tell, when they have no notion themselves whether they are five or fifty. CHAPTER NINETEEN. GENERAL REMARKS ON THE TRANSVAAL. The two main roads from the Cape Colony to the Transvaal cross the Orange river at Hope Town, and a few miles north of Colesburg, both meeting at Kimberley, the diamond-field centre. Railways are open as far as Kimberley.