1811. 
VIOLENT THUNDER, WIND, AND RAIN, 
337 
hail commenced, attended by lightning and the most tremendous 
' peals of thunder. One explosion, in particular, seemed to have taken 
place within two hundred yards of us : it sounded like the simultaneous 
firing of a dozen cannons, the effect of which was even increased by the 
sound being reiterated in echoes several times repeated, rolling through 
the mountains. The wind increased to a furious hurricane ; and dust, 
sticks, and fine gravel, filled the air. This storm lasted but a quarter of 
an hour, and was immediately succeeded by a dead calm, and a cloudless 
sky. The thermometer, before the commencement of the rain and 
thunder, stood at 79^° (26" -3 C.) ; during its continuance it fell to 
64' (17° "7 .C), and on the termination rose again to 74" (23' '3 C.) 
The weather remained undisturbed and pleasant for three hours ; 
but at sun-set the hurricane returned with redoubled fury. Nothing 
could exceed the violence of the thunder ; and the vivid glare of the 
lightning often blinded us for a whole minute. The rain poured 
down, as though it would wash us out of the valley ; and the wind 
blew with a force that was near overturning the waggons. This 
second tempest lasted half an hour, after which the weather con- 
tinued calm and quiet the whole night. 
All the sheep having been sent on to Klaarwater, and Captain 
Berends, who was to have supplied me with the meat we should 
require at the Kloof, being gone on a fortnight's hunt, we remained 
all the day without food. At last, towards evening, a Hottentot 
was found willing to sell me a sheep. He volunteered his assistance 
in skinning it, and, with a number of his friends, uninvited, joined 
our party, and sat till they had consumed the greatest part of it. 
24th. Although the thermometer stood at 80° all the middle 
of the day ; yet, owing to the quick evaporation from the wet earth, 
the air was, to bodily feeling, cool. In the middle of the night, 
it was only 56^°, and about sunrise not higher than 47^ (8° -6 C.) 
25tJi. A Koodoo * was seen, and fired at by my hunters, who 
* Antilope strepsicavs, of modern writers. The Hottentot name is written Koedoe, 
according to Dutch orthography : Kudu, in German : and Koodoo, or Coodoo, in English. 
