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small extent. One of the weakly oxen walking behind tlie 
wagons refused to come on, and laid down in th.e road, 
but Dubois waited behind, and managed to get him into 
camp before dark. Water is scarce, and it is with great 
difficulty we can find water and grass for the oxen near 
together. Shot a blesbok, having taken several random 
and long shots as we went along the road whenever a 
chance offered. The whole country still swarming with 
game. Next day we waited till the afternoon before 
trekking, to give the oxen a rest. I managed to get a 
zebra and another blesbok — both very long and random 
shots. I had a long chase on the grey mare after the 
zebra, although its off hind leg was broken. A wild 
windy night with a little rain. Still on the high veldt ; 
but we have been fortunate in not being detained by rain, 
and two more days' travelling will take us over the worst 
of it. 
September 26th. A very miserable morning, with a 
nasty cold drizzling rain. The sick tired out oxen were 
as usual not tied up to the wagons at night, that they 
might rest more comfortably and feed if they would; but 
this morning they had disappeared, seeking shelter I 
suppose from the cold rains. We also found there was not 
a blade of grass to be seen where we had camped in the 
dark last night, and our trek oxen looked very miserable. 
After breakfast, Dubois started off to look for the missing 
bullocks, though owing to the mist he could not see any 
distance, and he had no clue to the direction they had 
taken, and the country being very broken, I thought there 
was very little chance of his finding them again. We 
were obliged to move on for grass, and the day clearing 
after 1 o'clock, we made a second trek which landed us 
at the Vaal river, where we found some better grass. 
Thank goodness we are at last off the highest part of the 
Drachensburg. Dubois turned up in the evening, and had 
