LUNG SICKNESS. 99 



crown after our disasters in the Transvaal. I am 

 convinced that during the hour I remained by this 

 piece of water not less than several thousand head 

 of cattle were driven up to drink. Among such a 

 drove, as may be imagined, there was a wonderful 

 variety of breeds, the big-horned, awkward, raw- 

 boned Lake Ngami animals predominating. Still, 

 these beasts have their value, as they can stand 

 being deprived of water with impunity when treck- 

 ing across the doorst-land (thirst-land), when better- 

 looking animals would unquestionably perish. The 

 spread of the horns of these Ngami cattle from point 

 to point is sometimes amazing, ten feet and a half 

 being no uncommon measurement. But it is not to 

 be supposed that all the component parts of this 

 drove were equally ungainly, for in its ranks were 

 to be found Zulu, Mashoona, and Fatherland oxen 

 and kine, many of them sufficiently handsome to 

 please the eye of the most fastidious connoisseur. 



I learned from a herdsman that lung-sickness 

 was extremely prevalent among his charges, and 

 that the losses had not unfrequently amounted to 

 eight or ten head a day. This disease, known by 

 scientists as pleuro-pneumonia, is the curse of the 

 stock-raiser who is settled to the north of the 

 colony ; in fact, but for its ravages, fortunes would 

 be too easily made by pastoral farmers. Many 

 people believe that it can be cured by inoculation, 

 an operation generally performed by inserting some 



