116 THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 



finger pinched. Of course it must be so persons who 

 do things in a hurry are certain to get hurt, if, indeed, 

 they don't actually make a complete bungle of the 

 matter. 



That last pull was a near thing, but the driving and 

 energy of Hendrick saved us, or at least the wagon, 

 from trying to discover the sea-level; for when I got 

 my fingers pinched I became " gingery " an expres- 

 sion I remember using as a boy and failed for some 

 time in getting my stone under the wheel. 



That doubtless was the worst trial we had, for 

 although it was only in the middle of the incline, halts 

 afterwards became less frequent and less prolonged. 

 There was one rest I well remember ; it was a point 

 two -thirds to the summit, and where the road diverged 

 from about north to north-west. At the moment the 

 moon was unusually brilliant, and you could see the 

 tops of hill after hill, till you almost imagined that 

 the limit of your vision was where the ocean joined 

 the sky imagined, remember I say. 



At this time it was fearfully cold the thermo- 

 meter I do not think had reached freezing-point and 

 there was no wind ; still our progress was so slow that 

 the blood chilled in our veins : and pray, reader, re- 

 collect we had left Natal covered with tropical vege- 

 tation in full leaf, not more than a few weeks before, 

 and crossed the equator in the Atlantic Ocean not over 

 another month previously. 



I can recall our both leaning against a rock shiver- 

 ing : no complaint was made beyond the remark that it 

 was "deuced cold !" Still, I have no doubt we both felt 

 it even to our marrow-bones. 



Again we are off : the whips crack, the drivers scold, 



