A horse which had had the disease and recovered was immune there- 

 after and was said to be "salted" and commanded many times the price 

 of an "unsalted" animal. Dr. Hutcheon said he thought the disease was 

 a form of equine malaria, but there are obvious objections to this view. 

 In the Karroo Desert, away from the railroads, freighting was done 

 entirely by means of donkeys, of which I saw teams of 24 and 36 head, 

 hauling great platform wagons. No doubt, this was a temporary arrange- 

 ment, occasioned by the scarcity of draught animals. 



From Maitland, we went in and out by train, paying the local fares; 

 when the lists had been verified, the members of the official party 

 received blanket passes, good on every line and every train throughout 

 South Africa. This was a very handsome gift to us from the colonial 

 governments, to which the railways belonged. Some of the visitors, 

 however, were not satisfied; one professor, said to be a man of wealth, 

 put in a claim against the railroad administration for fourpence, paid in 

 suburban fares. He argued that the delay in issuing his pass had occa- 

 sioned the expenditure and he wanted his money back. The admin- 

 istration refunded the fourpence and avenged itself by telHng the 

 story, which was repeated, with Homeric laughter, all over South 

 Africa. Indeed, I have often wished for a full and unvarnished opinion 

 from South Africa upon the British Association, as I had from the 

 British Association regarding South Africa. Incomplete as my knowl- 

 edge was, it contained some amazing items. 



That the extraordmary performances which I myself witnessed, or 

 heard of from unimpeachable sources, may not be misunderstood, it 

 should be explained that the British Association is made up of all sorts 

 and conditions of men and women, and that when a meeting is in 

 progress any British subject, not obviously disreputable, may walk in 

 from the street and become a member by paying a guinea. On the 

 assumption that all who care to join will be decent and orderly, the 

 statutes contain no provision for expelHng a member. Before our journey 

 was over, the lack of such a provision was found to be an unfortunate 

 oversight. 



The formal meetings began without delay; the presidential address 

 was in two parts, one of which was deUvered in Cape Town, the other 

 in Johannesburg. The first of these was given in a huge barn of a place, 

 as cold as Greenland, and, in my capacity of "distinguished foreigner" 

 (there weren't many of us) I had to sit on the stage, with a torrent of 

 cold air pouring down the back of my neck; it was ghastly. Next came 

 a garden party, given by the Governor, Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson, 



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