284 TRAVELS IN 
action, bring forth the young from the eggs of all the insect 
tribe that are deposited in the ground. Thus, though a rainy 
summer may promote vegetation, yet it at the same time caJls^ 
to life such multitudes of destructive vermin, which otherwise 
would have remained dormant in the ground, that on the 
whole a dry season is perhaps the best. 
From the Bavian's river into Bruyntjes Iloogte is a day's 
journey, and through this to the entrance of Camdeboa 
another, and three from hence to GraafFReynet, at which vil- 
lage we arrived on the twenty-fourth, on one of the warmest 
days that we had yet experienced in the v/hole country. The 
thermometer, wlien exposed to the wind in the shade, rose to 
108° ; whilst in the house it was cool and pleasant at 82°. It 
was one of those hot winds, such as we had once before expe- 
rienced on the banks of the Great Fish river. They happen 
most frequently upon the Karroo plains, where they are some- 
times attended with tornados that are really dreadful. Wag- 
gons are overturned, men and horses thrown down, and the 
shrubs torn out of the ground. The dust and sand are whirled 
into the air in columns of several hundred feet in height, which, 
at a distance,, look like the water-spouts seen sometimes at sea ; 
and with those they are equally, if possible, avoided, — all that 
falls in their way being snatched up in their vortex. Some- 
times dust and small pebbles are hurled into the air with the 
noise and violence of a sky-rocket. Rain and thunder gene- 
rally succeed those heated winds, and gradually bring about 
a decrease of temperature to the common standard, which, in 
the summer season at Graaff Reynet, appears to be about 80" 
to 84° in the middle of the day. The mornings and the even- 
ings are generally cool and plea.sant. 
