INTRODUCTORY 1 1 



to normal conditions. Rinderpest, too, has played 

 havoc with cattle, and the cost of ox-waggon trans- 

 port is much increased. Horses, which are always 

 necessary, cost from 15 to 25 apiece probably 

 from ^20 to j 30 will now be nearer the mark. A 

 salted horse (/.., one immune against horse-sickness) 

 is worth from 60 to 80 in normal times. For a 

 hunting trip of four to six months three horses are 

 necessary for each sportsman. If the trip is made 

 in the dry winter season May to October salted 

 horses are not absolute necessities. 



A good second-hand hunting waggon can be 

 procured for from ^80 to 100. Trek-oxen are 

 worth from ^12 to ^15 apiece, in place of the 

 j6, i os. per head of a few years since. Sixteen to 

 eighteen oxen make up the span. Wages are usually 

 2, i os. per month for the driver ; cook, ^2, los. ; 

 horse boys, los. to ^i ; leaders (or foreloupers), los. 

 to,i. In addition to these wages, native servants 

 are found in food, which consists, for the most part, 

 of mealie meal, with meat when in the game veldt. 

 Cooks and drivers are allowed coffee and sugar. 

 Tea, coffee, sugar, tinned milk, Boer meal (for 

 making bread), mealie meal, plenty of tinned stores 

 fruits, jams, vegetables, etc. as well as mealies 

 for the shooting ponies, should be taken. 1 A 

 Cape waggon has plenty of storage room. Dried 



1 When shooting in South Africa, where horses are used, mealies are 

 essential. Hunting means hard work for one's horse-flesh, and the nags 

 quickly run down in condition unless well fed. Where mealies are unprocurable 

 Kaffir corn (a species of millet), usually obtainable at native villages, is an 

 excellent substitute. 



