foot by foot, before the driving rain down the slope 

 from the outspan, stung by the heavy drops and yield- 

 ing in their weakness to the easy gradient. Only fifty 

 yards away they should have stopped in the hollow 

 the shallow dry donga of the morning ; but they were 

 gone ! Unwilling to turn back and face the rain, 

 they had no doubt been caught in the rush of storm- 

 water and swirled away, and their bodies were bobbing 

 in the Crocodile many miles below by the time we 

 missed them. 



In a couple of hours the water had run off ; the 

 flooded dongas were almost dry again ; and we moved 

 on. 



It was then that the real ' rot ' set in. Next 

 morning there were half a dozen oxen unable to stand 

 up ; and so again the following day. It was no longer 

 possible to take the four waggons ; all the spare cattle 

 had been used up and it was better to face the worst 

 at once ; so I distributed the best of the load on the 

 other three waggons and abandoned the rest of it 

 with the fourth waggon in the bush. But day by 

 day the oxen dropped out, and when we reached the 

 Junction and branched up the Kaap, there were not 

 enough left for three waggons. 



This time it meant abandoning both waggon and 

 load ; and I gave the cattle a day's rest then, hoping 

 that they would pick up strength on good grass to 

 face the eight drifts that lay between us and Barberton. 



