FLY-DISEASE IN CATTLE AND HOUSES. 1G9 



after death the puncture of every Hy can be seen on the 

 inside of the skin, and on the flesh is a ring of yellow 

 mucus, nearly as large as the palm of the hand, similar 

 to the mark that surrounds the bite of a snake, but 

 smaller. 



" A bullock belonging to Christian Harmoe was stuck 

 in May ; he worked for 500 miles, then began to show 

 symptoms, and died in September. Some of my own — 

 stuck during the passage through the fly country in 

 September, 1871 — worked about 300 miles, and died at 

 Mr. Hartley's in January of the next year." 



* * * * * 



" Mr. Hartley adds : — ' Horses swell about the eyes, 

 nostrils, and testicles, where generally the wounds are 

 most numerous, they pine away, and their hair stands on 

 end, or is i"e versed ; cold rain also hastens their death.' My 

 friend, the late Joseph Macabe, being incredulous, deli- 

 berately rode a valuable hunter right into an infested 

 tract, and returned to the outspan, where his steed died in 

 a few hours, and the pool is now called Schimmel Paard's 

 Pan, or the pool of the dapple grey horse. Mr. Hartley's 

 splendid grey elephant charger, ' Camelbuck,' died twenty 

 days after he was stuck ; ammonia was applied, and he 

 was led to stand in cold water, which is said to be some- 

 times effectual, but in vain. My own horse, ' Vegtmann,' 

 stuck, I believe, in October, 1869, travelled more than 

 1,100 miles, and died early next year in Pieter Maritz- 

 burg. Dogs pine and waste as oxen do. We lost some, 

 but one, a rough hairy bitch, seemed recovei'ing ; the 

 new hair that grew on places where she had apparently 

 been stuck was coarser and greyer than before. 



" The fly is extremely local, and extensive districts in 

 which it prevails may be passed through by the aid of 

 guides, who know the ' patches ' of fly, just as a pilot 

 knows the shoals of an estuary ; but it shifts with the 

 migration of game, and, therefore, the knowledge of the 

 guide ought to be recent. 



" The hunters endeavour to, keep.it from their road, in 

 Matabililand, by burning the dry grass, as they come out 

 at the end of the season. And when the Boers made their 

 celebrated ' Commando path,' they destroyed the bush for 

 several hundred yards on cither side as they approached 



