On the Veldt in the Seventies Author:Charles Warren Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV Sunday, Dec. 31, 1876.?We are now busy measuring our base line 3 miles long, and de Villiers has arrived to assist. This line has already been meas... more »ured previously by Mr. Orpen, and it is interesting to find that the straight line he cut in the veldt twelve months ago has already become zigzag and wavy, probably from sheep using it as a path. I will describe the situation of our camp, placed near the upper end of our base line. We are on the brow of a swelling hill, overlooking Kimberley and Old de Beers, right in the veldt, and around is excellent pasture for our oxen; it is principally Karoo bush with a few blades of grass here and there. It is blazing hot?yesterday while we were computing in the waggon, which I use as an office, the thermometer ranged from 106 to 108 F., and the tilt of the waggon is double lined. By placing over it a reed matting and another canvas cover we have reduced the temperature to 92 F. at 1 P.m. I am now writing in my tent, which is double lined, with temperature 94 F., the wet bulb being at 64 F. I should say that the actual heat in the shade is 92. The air is wonderfully dry, and all nature and art is cracking with the drought, even my despatch box which withstood a summer atMalta is so warped that I can lock it with difficulty. There is at the same time a nice breeze, which, though hot, makes one feel cool so long as perspiration goes on, so that the more exercise one takes the cooler one feels. On the right of the waggon is my tent, on the right of that is the N.C.O.'s tent, and again on the right is the Scotch cart where the natives congregate, and in rear is the cooking-place. The N.C.O.s have a bell tent; I have a small rectangular tent of South African make, and a piece of canvas is stretched over it from the waggon tilt. It is ab...« less