tear
across the plain over the tops of the kopjes, carrying with them scraps
of paper and rubbish of all sorts. The irritation produced by the
absorption of this permeating dust into the system militates to some
extent against the rapid recovery of men who suffer from diseases like
dysentery or enteric fever. It travels under doors and through window
sashes, and a patient is obliged, whether he will or no, to swallow a
certain amount of it daily. Nevertheless the South African dust does not
appear to be so bacillus-laden as, _e.g._, that of Atbara Camp, which,
amongst other evil effects, continually produced ulceration in the mouth
and throat.

De Aar lies in the centre of a large plain, shut in on every side by
kopjes. In fact its position is very similar indeed to that of
Ladysmith. The hills on the east and west were always held by pickets
with some field guns belonging to the Royal Artillery and the Prince
Alfred's Artillery Volunteers. A much loftier line of kopjes to the
north was untenanted by the British, but any approach over the veldt
from the north-east was blocked by several rows of shelter trenches and
a strongly-constructed redoubt with wire entanglements, ditch, and
parapet topped with iron rails. Signallers were continually at work, and
at night it was quite a pretty sight to watch the twinkling points of
the signal lights as they flashed between the tents on the plain and the
distant pickets on the tops of the kopjes. Boers had been seen to the
east and on the west; some at least of the Dutch colonists were in open
revolt; so officers and men were always prepared at a moment's notice to
line the trenches for defence, while the redoubts and the batteries on
the hills were permanently garrisoned.

Everybody loathed De Aar. With the exception of some feeble cricket
played on some unoccupied patches of dusty ground, and a couple of
shabby tennis courts, usually reserved for the "patball" of the local
athletes of either sex, there was absolutely nothing to do, and we were
too far off Modder River to feel that we were at all in the swim of
things. The heat was sometimes appalling. On Christmas day the
temperature was 105 deg. in the shade, and most people took a long siesta
after the midday dinner and read such odds and ends of literature as
fell into their hands.

We train people, of course, read and slumbered in one of the wards,
while our comrades under canvas lay with eight heads meeting in the
centr