thick flags, which, after being stacked and dried over the kraal wall,
would burn nearly as well and as brightly as wood. The discovery of coal
beds in so many accessible places in the Cape Colony, Natal, and in the
two Republics has since superseded that sort of fuel to a great extent.

The small divergence between summer and winter temperature upon the high
table lands will be seen from the following table taken from
observations at 5,500 to 6,000 feet altitude in the Transvaal:--

Fahr. Fahr.

In winter--28° to 40° at night; 35° to 70° by day in the shade.
In summer--40° to 60° at night; 50° to 90° by day in the shade.

It is not often that 85° is reached, and rarely above. This applies
equally to the more southern and thus colder latitudes of Queenstown, at
3,000 feet elevation, and to the eastern half of the Orange Free State,
at 4,000 to 5,000 feet, the warmth increasing, as said before,
proportionately with the descent in altitude, and on occasions of tardy
summer rains.

The winter is the most enjoyable of the seasons, being an almost
uninterrupted continuation of fine sunny weather. On occasions there
would be spells of boisterous weather with a rather sudden and inclement
decrease of temperature, brought on by cold south-east winds; if these
are accompanied with rain in winter, which, however, rarely happens, it
would sometimes turn to sleet or even snow, or else to hard freezing at
night. The snow would, however, thaw with the warmth of the sun, and so
restore the temperature as before. The bracing quality of the climate
mostly consists just in those variations of cool nights and warm days,