Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Magaliesberg Mountains and the city of Pretoria Against them, partly Obscured by
Pollution
Harris once described huge herds of elephants in the area but by the time of the mid 1800s,
Gordon Cummins and Baldwin found most of them gone. Indeed, despite this, in 1855 some
200,000 lbs. of ivory was exported from the province of Transvaal. A quarter of a century
later there was still some 160,000 lbs. being exported from the Cape Province. Exports of
ivory peaked out of the Cape Colony between 1875 and 1880 with the most yearly amount
being the 160, 000 lbs. The Letaba Camp Museums at Kruger Park has on display the
Magnificent Seven Elephant tusks from what probably was a unique genetic pool of elephants
that had tusks mostly over 200 lbs. each and over 10 feet long. The last of the big tuskers,
Duke, broke his off last year and died this year.
As we approached Johannesburg, and pierced through the smog cloud at about 15,000 feet, I
could see the streaking smoke of fires across the landscapes that looked like streaks of froth on
a storm tossed sea. The winter scape of brown veld, brown-red clay of plowed corn fields,
and black burnt grass veld speckled by clusters of farm houses and the huts of farm laborers
gave way to the outskirts of the greater Johannesburg metropolis.
Winter-scape of Corn Farms outside Kyalami and Johannesburg
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