CHAPTER V. 



CLIMATE OF THE KARROO. 



Cape Colony much abused — Healthy climate — Wonderful cures of con- 

 sumption — Karroo a good place for sanatorium — Rarity of illness 

 and accidents — The young colonist — An independent infant — Long 

 droughts — liot winds — Dust storms— Dams — Advantage of possess- 

 ing good wells — Partiality of thunderstorms — Delights of a brack 

 roof^ Washed out of bed — After the rain— Our horses — Effects of 

 rain indoors — Opslaag — The Cape winter — What to wear on Karroo 

 farms. 



Of all portions of the globe, surely none has ever been 

 so much grumbled at, abused, and despised, both justly 

 and unjustly, as the poor Cape Colony. Hardly any 

 one who has lived under its cloudless skies has a kind 

 word to say for it ; indeed, it is quite the usual thing 

 to speak of one's residence in it as of an enforced and 

 miserable exile — a kind of penal servitude — though, 

 strangely enough, most of those who go so rejoicingly 

 home to England, like boys released from school, 

 manage sooner or later to find their way out again ; 

 as though impelled by a t juch of some such magic as 

 that which is supposed to draw back to the Eternal 

 City those who have once drunk at the Trevi fountain. 

 One of the legion of grumblers tells you the Cape 



