HAIL STORMS 241 



spanned and altered our course slightly to the 

 westward. The hail-showers had been so 

 heavy that all spoor was obliterated; accord- 

 ingly we could not tell whether game was 

 about or not. The day was bitterly cold; over 

 and over again the hail showers recurred. 

 Several times we got so perished that we 

 halted and lit fires of candle-bush just to thaw 

 our hands at. Night fell with a slight im- 

 provement in the weather; the wind dropped 

 and only a thin drizzle was falling. We 

 camped again and gave the horses a liberal 

 feed of corn. They did not appear to suffer 

 much from the cold. Such weather was the 

 very last thing one could have expected. But 

 surely the sky would be clear on the morrow. 



Again a cloudy morning, but the clouds 

 were high and there was no rain. At last we 

 saw signs of game, for we crossed the spoor 

 of several small troops of springbuck; these 

 had apparently been making in the direction 

 of Kamiebies. Later we found more spoor — 

 that of a really considerable herd making due 

 westward. 



The desert here was not quite so flat as 



usual; the brown expanse undulated in long, 



low ridges running parallel to our course. 



These were often several miles apart and in 



p 



