ABSTRACT
The BaVenda occupy approximately a third of the inhabited territory of the Zoutpansberg district in the Northern Transvaal. The Zoutpansberg district is mountainous and rugged with a varied climate and rainfall, and a rich sub-tropical vegetation. The Zoutpansberg mountains stretch roughly east and west for approximately eighty miles, with several branches and only one large break. Mimosa trees flourish all over the country, in at least fifteen varieties. Elephant were plentiful, as were herds of koodoo, sable, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, eland and wildebeest. On the southern slopes of the mountains it is often intensely cold with heavy frosts at night, but there is seldom frost to the north, except near the rivers. In the north-west of Vendaland there are traces of some very ancient occupation. Colonel Piet Moller, who was an early settler in the Zoutpansberg, has found what he considers to be indisputable evidence of ancient irrigation works.
