and the occasional days of comparatively cold, boisterous weather. The
latter must indeed be provided against, for even in December--that is to
say, in the middle of summer--it would be imprudent to travel without
great-coats as well as waterproofs, so as to be protected against
unexpected changes, from say, 100° in the sun, almost suddenly to 40°
with a driving wind, accompanied perhaps with rain. Such transitions are
trying in the open, even if one is well clad, and the blustering weather
is sometimes so severe, if it happens in winter or early spring, as to
approach the character of a blizzard. One such lasted about thirty hours
in the early spring of 1881. It swept over the entire South African
plateaux and destroyed great numbers of sheep and cattle. These fell
exhausted in their flight before they could reach some sheltering hills
or ravines. In situations where such protections from the cold
south-east wind were far apart the veldt was on the following day found
strewn with their carcases, and upon the still more extensive and
unbroken plains antelopes even perished in enormous numbers simply from
exhaustion in trying to escape and find shelter from the cold wind.

I will just describe one of those occurrences, the severest in my
experience and well remembered by the Free State and the Transvaal
Boers--it was, I think, in 1881. One sunny day, early in August (spring
time), at a place about twenty miles east of Reddersburg, in the Orange
Free State, the wind veered to the south-east, and by afternoon had
begun to blow fairly hard and cold, about 35° Fahrenheit--that is to
say, about 35° below the temperature of a few hours previously. I had
managed to get some milch cows driven near to the kraal, where there
would have been very fair shelter for them, but luckily, as the sequel
proved, they refused to enter, and rushed past in a scared way, just
snatching up one mouthful of forage which had been thrown down to entice
them to stay, and making off as hard as they could. The wind did not