4 
THE NEW AFRICA 
illness before serious symptoms appear. The disease is probably 
zymotic, hardly infectious, appearing only in summer, on the 
High Flats, and is most prevalent amongst horses that are 
allowed to graze in the open during the night, especially if 
there is any dew on the grass. In fact, on a dewy, misty, hot 
morning it is recognised as almost a certainty that horses 
will contract this disease if allowed to graze outside in low- 
lying country; while even in valleys existing on the high lands, 
horses are by no means safe under these conditions. Great 
significance is attached by farmers to the first day of frost 
at the break of the seasons, for the first frost seems to aggra¬ 
vate any latent germs of disease in a most violent manner, 
and many horses die about this period. After the third day 
of frost the disease is practically extinct until the following 
summer. 
It is very remarkable that this illness only attacks horses 
and no other animals, although these are exposed to its 
influence in every way. Lately it has been asserted that the 
microbe of this disease has been discovered by the Cape official 
veterinary surgeon, and that a horse properly inoculated with an 
attenuated preparation of microbes will not catch the sickness. 
As this prophylactic treatment is still in the experimental 
stage, it is unnecessary to go any further into the subject. 
The discovery, if verified, will be hailed with delighted satis¬ 
faction by the farmers throughout South Africa, who annually 
lose thousands of horses from this terrible disease. 
All being prepared—the tents, food, medicine, etc.—and the 
usual paraphernalia of travel safely stowed away in the cart, 
we made a trial trip of our first ‘ trek ’ over some large stones 
to convince ourselves that the cart would stand the rough 
shocks sure to be experienced on the journey before us, and 
also to shake everything into position, or to expose, if possible, 
any flaws in our arrangements while we were still within reach 
of opportunities to repair them. As all was found to be in 
order, we made a definite start from Dundee in Natal on the 
2nd of March. 
