The slow progress of the "Spider." 197 



often be a dozen miles or so nearer to or further 

 from the place he desires to reach than he is at all 

 aware of. But what makes this stretch of plain 

 from Fort Victoria to Fort Charter so hopeless is the 

 character of the soil and the nature of the e'rass. 

 Almost the whole way the road lies through heavy 

 sand, in which passing waggons have worn deep ruts, 

 and on which the animals obtain no tirm foothold. 

 For long distances the " spider" and mule waggon 

 could only progress at the rate of two miles and a 

 half in the hour ; where the incline in the ground 

 is adverse the mules have to stop to get their 

 breath every three or four minutes, and they reach 

 the end of their trek perfectly exhausted. In 

 addition, the whole veldt on either side of the 

 road is what is called " sour veldt " (that is, coarse, 

 hard, dry grass), distasteful to the animals, espe- 

 cially to oxen, perfectly mmourishing. These two 

 bad features of so loDg a road render travel along 

 it all but impossil^le. Water is bad and difficult 

 to find, brushwood for tire scarce and hard to 

 obtain. The surrounding scenery is rendered in- 

 describably dreary at this season of the year by 

 vast tracts of l)urnt grass, presenting a blackened 

 and charred appearance ; and day after day the 

 traveller A'iews with displeasure and dismay his 

 animals becoming more lean, more lanky, more 

 fatigued, more weak, less and less able to proceed 

 with the loads ])chind them, although, to spare 

 them, the dailv distances accomplished are brought 

 down to less than six miles. This is the problem 

 of this part of the route : press your animals and 



