A KARROO FARM. 239 



them home at night to kraal. Many of these 

 out-stations he still farther out into the plains, 

 and have not all dams or fountains upon them. 

 The flocks, however, get water once in three 

 days in the cooler season, in this way : — It is 

 arranged that they shall depasture on one side of 

 the station for one day without water ; the next 

 day they are fed upon the other side of the station 

 where w^ater lies. Here they drink, return to kraal 

 as usual, and next day are depastured in another 

 direction without water. Thus one dam suffices 

 for three, or even more out-stations ; that is in fairly 

 cool weather. When the season gets hot, they 

 require water every other day, and at the homestead, 

 where water is abundant, they drink night and 

 morning. From April till September — the Cape 

 winter — sheep and goats alike, are often entirely 

 without water, unless, of course, near an abundant 

 supply ; in this cool season they scarcely need it, 

 and obtain a sufficiency of moisture from such 

 succulent plants as the spekboom, braak veije, a 

 small kind of stunted aloe called alveig, and others. 

 But, occasionally, the karroo is visited by prolonged 

 and appalling droughts, when but little rain or 

 moisture falls for two years at a stretch ; then every 

 dam dries up, every atom of moisture is scorched 

 from the herbage, the plains gasp under clear and 

 brazen skies, and the flocks perish in thousands. 

 During one of these droughts, our host himself lost 

 20,000 head of sheep and goats, while farmers, 

 not so well provided with water, lost even more 

 heavily in proportion. 



Where the veldt is good, sheep and goats can, if 

 required, during the winter and spring months — 



