CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



EXPERIENCES AT THE DIGGINGS. 



A Copper Hill Refreshing Dip Poetry not in my Line Guinea Fowls innu- 

 merable Shooting a Leopard Applauded by Monkeys Ruined Huts 

 Gifts that didn't Pay At Moiloes again Clear of the Great Thirst Land 

 At Zeerust again Mr. Wisbeach' s Kindness At Klerksdorp again Parting 

 with Umganey Faithful to the End Attacked by a Deserter Arrival at 

 Kimberly Jarvey No. 1 won't take his Fare Jarvey No. 2 does The 

 Cabman an old Friend High-class of Emigrants Splendid Material for a 

 Cavalry Regiment Mr. Balfour Curious Coincidence Mr. Balfour's Letter 

 Documentary Evidence touching the Death of the Basuto Pony and an 

 Ox. 



NEXT day we failed to find water where water was 

 expected, so we made but a short halt. Towards sun- 

 set we trecked down the side of a hill. This incline 

 was a mass of pure copper. Even the loose rubble that 

 lay upon it was the same ; and when the wheels grazed 

 it, so soft was the metal that they sliced off pieces an 

 inch or more in length, and quite a quarter of an inch 

 thick. 



About ten in the afternoon on the second day we 

 reached Aspho (vulture) fontein; here we found an 

 abundant supply of beautiful clear water, and I enjoyed 

 the luxury of a bath not one of your cat's-wash kind 

 of affairs that for so long I have had to put up with, 

 but a regular swim in eight or nine feet of water. This 

 stream passes through a deeply-wooded kloof. The 

 scene recalled a poem written before I found out that 



