COMFORTABLE LODGINGS. 
7 
older hands were very glad to be saved the trouble. 
Reitbucks were very plentiful, duikers, and farther on, 
steinbucks ; and I could imagine no greater enjoy¬ 
ment than in shooting them, till every bone in my 
body ached again with sleeping on the wet ground. 
We had more or less wet every day, and frequently 
cold soaking rain all night. We tried to make our¬ 
selves more comfortable by fencing on the weather- 
side and cutting a deep trench round between the 
wheels, as the water came in more from underneath 
than above, but on wet nights, do what we would, 
we generally found ourselves in a pool of water in 
the morning — a lot of Kaffirs at our feet curled up 
like dormice in their blankets, and generally sleep¬ 
ing through everything, and a host of wet and 
dirty,, muddy, shivering, dreaming dogs on the top 
of us. The grass, which grew to a tremendous height, 
was so saturated, that one might just as well walk 
through a river, so there was no use in putting on dry 
clothes in the morning. Three were snugly housed 
in the wagons, and six of us had this fun to endure. 
Occasionally some of us tried the boat-wagon, but 
we found it like a cage I have heard of, made by 
one skilled in the refinement of cruelty, in which 
there was no possibility of either sitting, standing, or 
lying ; and eventually, I believe, we all gave that up 
as being, though dry, infinitely worse, for a con¬ 
tinuance, than any amount of rain. 
On the 7th of January (1852) one of the party killed 
a sea-cow calf—very good food, tasting something 
