314 TREK OXEN CROSSING THE THIRST LANDS. 



Sheep, goat, and ostrich farming we ought to say, 

 is here principally alluded to. There can be no doubt 

 that the great curse of South Africa is want of \vater, 

 and the heavy and serious losses of stock, occasioned 

 to farmers in those countries by drought, is unfor- 

 tunately but too notorious, notwithstanding all the 

 precautions that can be taken in shifting them and 

 providing permanent watering places. Oxen however, 

 can subsist, in case of need, for what to us would seem 

 surprising periods without drink, even under the strain 

 of constant work. Nearly every African traveller has 

 his own tale to tell of experiences he has had to un- 

 dergo in this respect, and two or three days of almost 

 constant marching, has undoubtedly frequently been 

 done in the thirst districts, without water, and with 

 comparatively little loss, provided the animals get a 

 good rest, and plenty of water after it. Even four 

 days has been done. Mr. Bryden for instance, a 

 recent authority on such matters, assures us that dur- 

 ing his journey across the Kalahari desert "although 

 we had two days and nights without water, and in 

 the middle of the desert, two days and three nights, 

 and three and four nights without a drop of water 

 for the cattle, we only lost one ox: our oxen were, 

 however, terribly enfeebled. " * A trader who followed 

 in the rear of Mr. Bryden's party, however, is stated 

 to have lost " many oxen from thirst and exhaustion. " f 

 But herbage was at the same time always plentiful, 

 for throughout these dreary and waterless wastes 

 almost everywhere, according to Mr. Bryden, grass is 



* Across the Kalahari Desert to the Botletli River, N'Gamiland, 

 by H. A. Bryden in Longman's Magazine for Sept. 1891, p. 5 2 4 

 f Ibid., p. 523. 



